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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3605-h.zip b/3605-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..92832e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3605-h.zip diff --git a/3605-h/3605-h.htm b/3605-h/3605-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a16e8a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3605-h/3605-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12365 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of On the Firing Line, +by Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Firing Line, by +Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Firing Line + +Author: Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + +Posting Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #3605] +Release Date: January, 2003 +First Posted: June 12, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +ON THE FIRING LINE +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="100%"> +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" WIDTH="20%"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">CHAPTER XIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">CHAPTER XIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">CHAPTER XV</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap16">CHAPTER XVI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap17">CHAPTER XVII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap18">CHAPTER XVIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap19">CHAPTER XIX</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap20">CHAPTER XX</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap21">CHAPTER XXI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap22">CHAPTER XXII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap23">CHAPTER XXIII</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap24">CHAPTER XXIV</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap25">CHAPTER XXV</A> +</TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap26">CHAPTER XXVI</A> +</TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> </TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER ONE +</H3> + +<P> +Six feet one in his stockings, broad-shouldered and without an ounce +of extra flesh, Harvard Weldon suddenly halted before one of a line +of deck chairs. +</P> + +<P> +"I usually get what I want, Miss Dent," he observed suggestively. +</P> + +<P> +"You are more fortunate than most people." Her answering tone was dry. +</P> + +<P> +Most men would have been baffled by her apparent indifference. +Not so was Weldon. Secure in the possession of a good tailor and +an equally good digestion, he was willing to await the leisurely +course of events. +</P> + +<P> +"My doctor always advises mild exercise after lunch," he continued. +</P> + +<P> +"You are in the care of a physician?" she queried, with a whimsical +glance up at his brown face and athletic figure. +</P> + +<P> +"Not just now. I was once, however." She raised her brows in polite +interrogation. Her involuntary thawing of a moment before had given +place to absolute conventionality. Weldon smiled to himself, as he +noted the change. He had been at sea for three days now, and those +three days had been chiefly spent in trying to penetrate the social +shell of his next neighbor at table. It was not so much that Ethel +Dent was undeniably pretty as that he had been piqued by her frosty +reception of his efforts to supplement the services of a careless waiter. +</P> + +<P> +Now, uninvited, he dropped into the empty chair next her own. +</P> + +<P> +"If I may?" he said questioningly, as he raised his cap. "Yes, I +have had a doctor twice. Once was measles, once a collar bone broken +in football. Both times, I was urged to take a walk after luncheon. +Is Miss Arthur—?" +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated for the right word. Still ignoring his obvious hint, +Ethel Dent supplied the word, without charity for her luckless +chaperon. "Horridly seasick." She pointed out to the level +steely-gray sea. "And on this duck-pond," she added. +</P> + +<P> +Her accent was expressive. Weldon laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps she isn't as used to the duck-pond as you are." +</P> + +<P> +The girl brushed a lock of vivid gold hair from her eyes; then she +sat up, to add emphasis to her words. "Miss Arthur has been to +America and back seven times and to Australia once," she said +conclusively. +</P> + +<P> +"As globe-trotter, or as commercial traveller?" +</P> + +<P> +"Neither. As professional chaperon. When she applied for me, she stated—" +The girl caught her breath and stopped short. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he asked encouragingly. She shook her head. Again, for an +instant, Weldon could see the humanity beneath the veneering. +Moreover, he liked what he saw. The blue eyes were honest and +steady. One mocking dimple belied the gravity of the firm lips. +</P> + +<P> +"What did she state?" he asked again. +</P> + +<P> +"It's not manners to tell tales about one's companion," she demurred. +</P> + +<P> +"Not if you spell it with a little c. With a capital, it becomes +professional, and you can say what you choose. Miss Arthur is +a righteous lady; nevertheless, she is a bit professional. +And you were saying that the lady stated—" +</P> + +<P> +"That she never had been seasick in her life." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh. And did she also produce certificates as to her moral +character? Or is fibbing merely bad form nowadays?" +</P> + +<P> +With swift inconsequence, the girl shifted to the other side of the +discussion. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course, this may be a first attack." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course," Weldon assented gravely. But again she shifted her +ground. "Only," she continued, with her eyes thoughtfully fixed on +the distant, impersonal point where sea and sky met; "only it is a +little strange that, yesterday, I heard her tell the stewardess she +never took beeftea when she was seasick." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh." Weldon's eyes joined hers on the sky-line. "I have heard of +similar cases before." +</P> + +<P> +"She offered to come on deck," Ethel went on quietly. "It was +generous of her, for she knew I was left entirely alone. +Nevertheless, I persuaded her that she was better off in her berth." +</P> + +<P> +Leaning back in the chair of the absent invalid, Weldon watched his +companion out of the corners of his eyes and rejoiced at the change +in her. Even while he rejoiced, he marvelled. A Canadian by birth +and education, he had rarely come in contact with English girls. At +first, he had been totally at a loss to account for the haughty +chill in the manner of this one. Grown accustomed to that, he was +still more at a loss to account for this sudden awakening into +humanity. He had as yet to learn that two days of having her only +companion seasick, coupled with a sparkling sun and a crisp breeze, +can rouse even a duenna-led English girl to the point of expressing +her opinions pithily and with vigor. +</P> + +<P> +As the Dunottar Castle had slid away from Southampton, three days +before, Weldon had tramped briskly up and down the crowded deck, +taking mental note of his companions for the next two weeks. Among +the caped and capped throng leaning over the rail and staring after +the receding shore with homesick eyes, he saw little to interest +him. Neither did the shore interest him in the least. His own +partings had come, two weeks before, when the steam yacht had put +back from Sandy Hook. Now, accordingly, he went in search of the +dining-room steward to whom he gave much gold and instruction. Then +he betook himself to his stateroom where his mates were already busy +settling their belongings. +</P> + +<P> +The luncheon hour disclosed the fact that the dining-room steward +had earned his money and had digested his instruction. A short pause +on the threshold informed Weldon that the Dunottar Castle held +exactly one pretty girl; the steward informed Weldon that the vacant +chair beside her was his own. Weldon picked up his napkin with a +brief prayer of thanksgiving. What if he was going out to Africa in +search of Boers and glory? There was no especial reason he should +not enjoy himself on the way. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon had gained a wide experience of American girls, well-bred, +well-chaperoned, nevertheless they offered possible points of +contact to the strangers with whom they were thrown. To all seeming, +Ethel Dent was as accessible as the outer wall of an ice palace. +Beside her decorous ignoring of his existence, Miss Arthur, lean and +spectacled and sniffy, appeared to be of maternal kindliness, albeit +her only advances had been a muffled request for the salt. The next +morning, Miss Arthur's chair had been empty, and her charge, left to +herself, had been more glacially circumspect than ever. Whatever +skittish traits the pair might develop, Weldon felt assured that +they would be solely upon the side of Miss Ophelia Arthur. +</P> + +<P> +Now, however, he was giving himself praise for his own astute +generalship. It was no slight matter, at the end of the third day, +to find himself sitting next to Miss Dent in the line of steamer +chairs and even bending over to pick up the novel she had dropped. +In his elation, Weldon neglected to give credit to Miss Arthur whose +digestive woes were the cause of the whole situation. Only the riper +Christianity which comes with declining years can make one wholly +loyal to a seasick comrade. +</P> + +<P> +He gave himself yet more praise, next morning at sunrise, when he +found himself pacing the deck at Ethel Dent's side. As a rule, he +and his mates rose betimes and, clad in slippers and pajamas, raced +up and down the decks to keep their muscles in hard order, before +descending for the tubbing which is the matin duty of every +self-respecting British subject. This morning, instead of the deserted +decks and the pajama-clad athletes, the passengers were out early to +catch the first glimpse of Madeira, and Weldon, starchy and glowing +with much cold water, was on deck to catch the first glimpse of +Ethel. +</P> + +<P> +Miss Arthur was still invisible, and the girl was discreetly late +about appearing. The deck was full, when at last she came in sight; +and it seemed, to her first glance, that she was the only unattended +person abroad, that morning. Her chin rose a little aggressively as +she moved forward. Then her eyes lighted. Cap in hand, Weldon stood +in her direct path. +</P> + +<P> +"Good morning," he said. "We've just passed the lighthouse and are +nearly opposite Canical. If you come over here, you can see it." +</P> + +<P> +His tone was matter-of-course, yet masterful. At the very beginning +of her fourth solitary day, Ethel admitted to herself that it was +good to have some one take possession of her in this summary +fashion. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Arthur still unhappy?" he asked, as he swung into step at +her side. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. She has taken to her hymnal, this morning, in search of +consolation. I tried to coax her to get up and go ashore; but she +said there was no use in experiencing the same woe twice." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid I do not quite catch the lady's line of argument," +Weldon remarked doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +The girl laughed. Then she decorously checked her laugh and +endeavored to turn sympathetic once more. +</P> + +<P> +"She means to make one prolonged illness. Else she will only recover +in order to fall ill again." "Oh." Weldon's tone was still blank. +"And shall you go ashore?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry. You would find any amount to see." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, too," she said frankly. "Still, I don't see how I can, +without Miss Arthur." +</P> + +<P> +His hands in his pockets, Weldon took a dozen steps in doubtful +silence. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll tell you what we can do, Miss Dent: Harry Carew, one of the +fellows going out with me, had a note of introduction to Colonel +Scott and his wife. He is the pompous old Englishman across the +table. I'll get Carew to introduce us, and perhaps they will let us +go ashore with them." +</P> + +<P> +"But are they going?" she asked irresolutely. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely. We have three hours here. I know Carew's mother well; she +and Mrs. Scott were schoolmates at Madame Prather's in London." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up with sudden interest. +</P> + +<P> +"Madame Prather's? That is where I have been, for the past five +years." +</P> + +<P> +"Then we are all right," Weldon said coolly. "The arrangement is +made. Carew is the only missing link. Excuse me, and I will go in +search of him." +</P> + +<P> +It was high noon when the Dunottar Castle finally weighed anchor at +Funchal and started on her long, unbroken voyage to the southward. +Side by side in the stern, Weldon and Ethel looked back at the blue +harbor dotted with the myriad little boats, at the quaint town +backed with its amphitheatre of sunlit hills and, poised on the +summit, the church where Nossa Senhora do Monte keeps watch and ward +over the town beneath. Ethel's experience was the broader for her +hilarious ride in a bullock-drawn palanquin. Weldon's experience was +more instructive. It taught him that, her hat awry and her yellow +hair loosened about her laughing face, Ethel Dent was tenfold more +attractive than when she made her usual decorous entrance to the +dining-room. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Scott had been a willing chaperon and an efficient one. +Nevertheless, as they stood together in the stern, looking out +across the gold-flecked sea, Weldon felt that he had made a long +stride, that morning, towards acquaintance with his companion. And, +even now, the voyage was nearly all before them. +</P> + +<P> +As if in answer to his thoughts, she lifted her eyes to his face. +</P> + +<P> +"Twelve more days!" she said slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sorry?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Glad and sorry both. I love the sea; but home is at the end of it." +</P> + +<P> +"You live out there?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled at the question. "Yes, if out there means Cape Town. At +least, my parents live there." +</P> + +<P> +"How long have you been in England?" he queried, while, abandoning +all pretence of interest in the fast-vanishing town, he turned his +back to the rail in order to face his companion more directly. +</P> + +<P> +"Always, except for one year, six years ago, and a summer—summer in +England, I mean—two years later." +</P> + +<P> +Rather inconsequently, Weldon attacked the side issue suggested by +her words. +</P> + +<P> +"How does it seem to have one's seasons standing on their heads?" +</P> + +<P> +She answered question with question. "Haven't you been out before?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"I supposed you had taken the voyage any number of times. But about +the seasons, it doesn't count for much until you come to Christmas. +No England-born mortal can hang up his stocking in mid-summer +without a pang of regretful homesickness." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you substitute a refrigerator for a chimney corner?" he asked. +"But are you England-born?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. My father went out only seven years ago. The 'home' tradition +is so strong that I was sent back to school and for a year of social +life. My little brother goes to Harrow in two years. Even in Cape +Town, a few people still hold true to the tradition of the public +school." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon nodded assent. +</P> + +<P> +"We meet it in Canada, now and then; not too often, though. So in +reality you are almost as much a stranger to Cape Town as I am." +</P> + +<P> +"Quite. My father says it is all changed now. It used to be a lazy +little place; now it is pandemonium, soldiers and supplies going +out, time-expired men and invalids coming in. Mr. Weldon—" +</P> + +<P> +His questioning smile answered the pause in her sentence. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. +</P> + +<P> +Her teeth shut on her lower lip, she stared at the wide blue sea +with wide blue eyes. Something in its restless tossing, in the +changing lights that darted back to her from the crests of the +waves, seemed to be holding her in an hypnotic trance. Out of the +midst of the trance she spoke again, and it was plain to Weldon, as +he listened to her low, intent voice, that her thoughts were not +upon the sea nor yet upon him. +</P> + +<P> +"It ought to terrify me," she said. "I mean the war, of course. I +ought to dread the going out into the atmosphere of it. I don't. +Sometimes I think I must have fighting blood in my veins. Instead of +being frightened at what my father writes me, I feel stirred by it +all, as if I were ready for anything. I went out to Aldershot, one +day last year; but that was only so many dainty frills, so much +playing soldier. That's not what I mean at all." Turning suddenly, +she looked up directly into Weldon's dark gray eyes. "One of my +cousins wants to be a nurse. She lives at Piquetberg Road, but she +has been visiting friends who live in Natal on the edge of the +fighting, where she has seen things as they happen. In her last +letter, she told me that she was only waiting for my uncle's +permission to go out as a nurse." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that what you would do?" +</P> + +<P> +Her head lifted itself proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"No. She can take care of the wounded men, if she chooses. For my +part, I'd rather cheer on the men who are starting for the front. If +I could know that one man, one single man, fought the better for +having known me, I should feel as if I had done my share." +</P> + +<P> +She spoke with fiery vigor; then her eyes dropped again to the +dancing waves. When at length she spoke again, she was once more the +level-voiced English girl who sat next him at the table. +</P> + +<P> +"You are going out to Cape Town to stay, Mr. Weldon?" she asked, +with an accent so utterly conventional that Weldon almost doubted +his own ears. +</P> + +<P> +"To stay until the war ends," he replied, in an accent as +conventional as her own. +</P> + +<P> +"In Cape Town?" Then she felt her eyes drawn to meet his eyes, as he +answered quietly,— +</P> + +<P> +"I shall do my best to make myself a place in the firing line." +</P> + +<P> +Again her conventionality vanished, and she gave him her hand, as if +to seal a compact. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you will win it and hold it," she responded slowly. "I can +wish you nothing better." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWO +</H3> + +<P> +A berugged, bedraggled bundle of apologies, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay +prone in her steamer chair, her cheeks pale, her eyes closed. Her +conscience, directed towards the interests of her charge, demanded +her presence on deck. Once on deck and apparently on guard, Miss +Arthur limply subsided into a species of coma. Her charge, +meanwhile, rosy and alert, sat in the lee of a friendly ventilating +shaft. Beside her, also in the lee of the ventilating shaft, sat Mr. +Harvard Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +The past week had been full of the petty events which make up life +on shipboard. The trail of smoke from a passing steamer, the first +shoal of flying fish, the inevitable dance, the equally inevitable +concert and, most inevitable of all, the Sabbatic contest between +the captain and the fresh-water clergyman who insists upon reading +service: all these are old details, yet ever new. Throughout them +all, Weldon had sturdily maintained his place at Ethel's side. By +tacit consent, the girl had been transferred to the motherly care of +Mrs. Scott who, after a keen inspection of Weldon, had decided that +it was safe to take upon trust this clean-eyed, long-legged Canadian +who was so obviously well-born and well-bred. +</P> + +<P> +Now and then Carew joined the group; but the handsome, dashing young +fellow had no mind to play the part of second violin. He would be +concertmaster or nothing. Accordingly, he withdrew to the rival +corner where a swarthy little French girl maintained her court +without help from any apparent chaperonage whatsoever. Left in +possession of the field, Weldon made the most of his chances. The +acknowledged attendant of Ethel, his jovial ministrations overflowed +to Mrs. Scott, until the sedate colonel's wife admitted to herself +that no such pleasant voyage had fallen to her lot since the days +when she had started for India on her wedding journey. Weldon had +the consummate tact to keep the taint of the filial from his +chivalry. His attentions to Mrs. Scott and Ethel differed in degree, +but not in kind, and Mrs. Scott adored him accordingly. One by one, +the languid days dropped into the past. Neptune had duly escorted +them over the Line, to the boredom of the first-class passengers and +the strident mirth of the rest of the ship's colony. Winter was +already behind them, and the late December days took on more and +more of the guise of summer, as the log marked their passing to the +southward. To many on board, the idle passage was a winter holiday; +but to Weldon and Carew and a dozen more stalwart fellows, those +quiet days were the hush before the breaking of the storm. Home, +school, the university were behind them; before them lay the crash +of war. And afterwards? Glory, or death. Their healthy, boyish +optimism could see no third alternative. +</P> + +<P> +For ten long days, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay prone in her berth. Her +hymnal and her Imitation lay beside her; but she read less than she +pondered, and she invariably pondered with her eyes closed and her +mouth ajar. On the eleventh day, however, she gathered herself +together and went on deck. With anxious care Weldon tucked the rugs +about her elderly frame. Then he exchanged a glance with Ethel and +together they sought the shelter of the ventilating shaft. +</P> + +<P> +Nothing shows the temperature more surely than the tint of the gray +sea. It was a warm gray, that morning, and the bowl-like sky above +was gray from the horizon far towards the blue zenith. From the +other end of the ship, they could hear the plaudits that accompanied +an impromptu athletic tournament; but the inhabitants of the nearest +chairs were reading or dozing, and the deck about them was very +still. Only the throbbing of the mighty screw and the hiss of the +cleft waves broke the hush. +</P> + +<P> +Out of the hush, Ethel spoke abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know, Mr. Weldon, you have never told me what brings you out +here." +</P> + +<P> +He had been sitting, chin on his fists, staring out across the gray, +foam-flecked water. Now he looked up at her in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you knew. The war, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but where are you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"To somewhere on the firing line. Beyond that I've not the least +idea." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is your regiment now?" +</P> + +<P> +"I haven't any." +</P> + +<P> +She frowned in perplexity. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I don't quite understand." +</P> + +<P> +"I mean I haven't enlisted yet." +</P> + +<P> +"But your commission?" she urged. +</P> + +<P> +"I have no commission, Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +"Not—any commission!" she said blankly. +</P> + +<P> +In site of himself, he laughed at her tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly not. I am going as a soldier." +</P> + +<P> +She sat staring at him in thoughtful silence. +</P> + +<P> +"But you are a gentleman," she said slowly at length. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's mouth twitched at the corners. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so," he assented. +</P> + +<P> +"Then how can you go as soldier, for I suppose you mean private?" +</P> + +<P> +Dictated by generations-old tradition, the question was eloquent. +Weldon's one purpose, however, was to combat that tradition; and he +answered calmly,— +</P> + +<P> +"Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because—because it isn't neat," she responded unexpectedly. +</P> + +<P> +This time, Weldon laughed outright. Trained in the wider, more +open-air school of Canadian life, he found her insular point of view +distinctly comic. +</P> + +<P> +"I have a portable tub somewhere among my luggage," he reassured +her. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"No; that's not what I mean. But you won't be thrown with men of +your own class. The private is a distinct race; you'll find him +unbearable, when you are really in close quarters with him." +</P> + +<P> +Deliberately Weldon rose and stood looking down at her. His lips +were smiling; his eyes were direct and grave. His mother could have +told the girl, just then, that some one had touched him on the raw. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Dent," he asked slowly; "is this the way you cheer on the +men?" +</P> + +<P> +She flushed under his rebuke and, for a moment, her blue eyes showed +an angry light. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon. I was referring to the men whom I am likely to +know." +</P> + +<P> +"And omitting myself?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"You are the exception which proves the rule," she answered a little +shortly. "Of course, I wish you all good; but I don't see how it is +to be gained, if you bury yourself in the ranks." +</P> + +<P> +"It may depend a little upon what you mean by good," he returned, +with a dignity which, notwithstanding her momentary petulance, won +her full respect. "I am not going out in search of the path to a +generalship. Fighting isn't my real profession." +</P> + +<P> +"Then what are you going for?" she demanded sharply. With no +consciousness of dramatic effect, his eyes turned to the Union Jack +fluttering above them. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I couldn't stay away," he answered simply. "From +Magersfontein to Nooitdedacht, the pull on me has been growing +stronger. I am not needed at home; I can shoot a little and ride a +good deal. I am taking out my own horse; I shall draw no pay. I can +do no harm; and, somewhere or other, I may do a little good. For the +rest, I prefer the ranks. It's not always the broadest man who lives +entirely with his own class. For a while, I am willing to meet some +one outside. As soon as I get to Cape Town, I shall enlist in a +regiment of horse, put on the khaki and learn to wind myself up in +my putties. Then it will remain to be seen whether my old friends +will accept Trooper Weldon on their list of acquaintances." +</P> + +<P> +"One of them will," the girl said quickly. "If only for the sake of +novelty, I shall be glad to know a man in the ranks." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"No novelty, Miss Dent. I know any number of fellows who are doing +the same thing. We can't all be officers; a few of us must take +orders. Out in the hunting field, we say it is the thoroughbred dog +who answers to call most quickly." +</P> + +<P> +She ignored his last words. +</P> + +<P> +"And you don't even know where you are going?" she asked. "To Cape +Town." +</P> + +<P> +"But after that?" +</P> + +<P> +"To my banker. After that, to the nearest recruiting station." +</P> + +<P> +"So you'll not stop in Cape Town?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's quick ear caught the little note of regret in her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Not long. Long enough, however, to pull any latch-string that +offers itself to me." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes dropped to the shining sea. +</P> + +<P> +"My mother will offer ours to you," she said quietly. Then she +added, with a swift flash of merriment, "And you will wish to see +Miss Arthur again." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon cast a mocking glance over his shoulder at the recumbent, +open-mouthed form. +</P> + +<P> +"Is the lady going to stop long with you?" he queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Long enough to recover from her invalidism." +</P> + +<P> +"To judge from her greeny-yellow cast of countenance, that may take +some time. But tell me, Miss Dent, does she always sleep out loud +like this?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not always. It usually comes when she is taking what she calls +forty winks." +</P> + +<P> +"Then may a merciful heaven prevent her from taking eighty," Weldon +observed piously. "Still, the sleeping cat—" +</P> + +<P> +"Fox," she corrected him promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Fox be it, then. Miss Arthur seems to me to be feline, rather than +vulpine, though." Bending forward, the girl studied her chaperon +thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"She really isn't so bad, Mr. Weldon. She means well. It is only +that I don't like tight frizzles and a hymn-book in combination. +People should always have one point of absolute worldliness." +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't fizzles—that is what you called the thatch over her +eyebrows; isn't it?—aren't they worldly?" +</P> + +<P> +Ethel Dent laughed with the consciousness of a woman's superior +knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +"It depends upon the season," she replied enigmatically, as she +rose. +</P> + +<P> +It was five days later that Ethel closed and locked her steamer +trunk. Leaving Miss Arthur to grapple alone with the cabin bags, the +girl went out on deck. Regardless of the glaring sunshine of New +Year morning, groups of people were dotted along the rail, staring +up at the flat top and seamy face of cloud-capped Table Mountain. In +the very midst of a knot of eager, excited men, Weldon was leaning +on the rail, talking so earnestly to Carew that he was quite +unconscious of the girl, twenty paces behind him. She hesitated for +a moment. Then, as she walked away to the farther end of the deck, +she told herself that Weldon was like all other men, regardful of +women only when no more vital interest presented itself. Already she +regretted the girlish vanity which had dictated the choice of the +gown in which she was to go ashore. For all the young Canadian was +likely to know to the contrary, she might be clad in a calico +wrapper and a blanket shawl, rather than the masterpiece of a London +tailor. +</P> + +<P> +The Dunottar Castle was forging steadily ahead through the blue +waters of Table Bay. Beyond the bay, Cape Town nestled in its bed of +living green, backed by the sinister face of Table Mountain, and +fringed with a thicket of funnels and of raking masts. To the girl, +familiar with the harbor when Cape Town had been a peaceful seaport, +it seemed that the navies of the world were gathered there before +her eyes. It seemed to her, too, that the low, squat town never +looked half so fair as it did now, viewed from a softening distance +and ringed about with its summer setting of verdure. +</P> + +<P> +Already the docks were in sight and, far to her left at the other +end of the long curve of the water front, her keen eyes could make +out the roof which, six years before, she had learned to call home. +She could imagine the stir and excitement in that home: the +controlled eagerness of her busy father, the gentle flurry of her +invalid mother, and the tempestuous bulletins issued by the small +brother whose occasional letters, full of incoherent affection and +quaint bits of orthography, had added interest to the last years of +her English life. One and all, they were loyally intent upon her +coming. And she, ingrate that she was, could spare thought from the +dear home circle to waste it upon the forgetful young Canadian who +was talking horse and politics by the rail. +</P> + +<P> +She turned sharply, as Weldon's voice fell upon her ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy New Year, Miss Dent! It is an odd wish to be giving, with the +mercury at ninety." +</P> + +<P> +With her London gown, she had also donned her London manner, and her +answer was banal. +</P> + +<P> +"But none the less welcome, for all its being so warm. May I return +it?" +</P> + +<P> +He laughed, like the great, overgrown boy that he so often showed +himself. +</P> + +<P> +"I decline to take it back. And where have you been, all the +morning?" +</P> + +<P> +"Packing my steamer trunk. I have been on deck for nearly an hour, +though." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sorry I missed so much of the time. I don't see why I didn't +see you," he said regretfully. "I was over there by the rail with +Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show up. It +was mighty interesting, too, this getting one's first glimpse of a +new corner of the earth." +</P> + +<P> +Most men would have seemed penitent over their absorption in other +things. Weldon merely acknowledged it as a matter of course, and +allowed the girl to draw her own conclusions. She drew them +accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted +their justice. Meanwhile, she kept her momentary antagonism quite to +herself, as she looked up into the face of her companion, an +earnest, manly face, in spite of its boyish outlines. +</P> + +<P> +"It is hard for me to realize that you are a stranger here," she +answered him. "All the way out, you have given the impression of +having made the voyage any number of times." +</P> + +<P> +"In what way?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the way of getting what you wish in an utterly matter-of-course +fashion." Her laugh belied her London exterior and belonged to the +broad felt hat and the soft blouse of the past two weeks. +</P> + +<P> +"That is the one compliment I most value, Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +"See that you continue to live up to it, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +For an instant, they faced each other, a merry boy and girl. Then +Weldon's lips straightened resolutely, and he bowed. +</P> + +<P> +"I will do my best," he answered slowly. +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later, he joined her at the gangway and took forcible +possession of her hand luggage. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely," he said, in answer to her objections; "you will let me do +you this one last little service." +</P> + +<P> +"Not if you call it that," she said quietly. "Our acquaintance is +only just beginning. If you are to be in Cape Town for a day or two, +come and let my mother thank you for your kindness to me, all the +way out." +</P> + +<P> +He took her hand, outstretched in farewell. +</P> + +<P> +"Even if I come as Trooper Weldon?" he asked with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +And she answered, with a prophecy of whose truth she was as yet in +ignorance,— +</P> + +<P> +"Trooper Weldon will always be a welcome guest in our home." +</P> + +<P> +Then her father came to claim her. When she emerged from his +welcoming embrace, she saw Weldon, cap in hand, bowing to her from +what appeared a most unseemly distance. The next moment, he had +vanished in the crowd. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER THREE +</H3> + +<P> +According to one's individual point of view, Cape Town, on that New +Year morning of nineteen hundred and one, was either a point of +departure for the front, or a city of refuge for the sleek and +portly Uitlanders who thronged the hotels and made too audible +mourning for their imperiled possessions. Viewed in either light, it +was hot, crowded and unclean. From his caricature of a hansom, +Weldon registered his swift impression that he wished to get off to +the front as speedily as possible. The hansom contributed to this +impression no less than did the city. Out of a multitude of similar +vehicles, he had chosen this for its name, painted across its +curving front. The Lady of the Snows had obviously been christened +as a welcome to the scores of his fellow colonials who had gone that +way before; and he and Carew had dashed past Killarney and The +Scotch Thistle, to take possession of its padded interior. +</P> + +<P> +It was almost noon, as they drove through the Dock Gates, past the +Amsterdam Battery, and turned eastward towards Adderley Street and +the Grand Hotel. It was nightfall before their luggage was safe +through the custom house and in their room. Carew eyed his boxes +askance. Weldon attacked the straps of his nearest trunk. +</P> + +<P> +"Wherefore?" Carew queried languidly from the midst of a haze of +smoke. +</P> + +<P> +"To take account of stock." +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use?" +</P> + +<P> +"To find out what we need, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"But we don't need anything. We've tobacco for our pipes and quinine +for our stomachs and fuller's earth for our feet. What more can a +man need?" As he spoke, Carew hooked his toe around a second chair, +drew it towards him and promptly converted it into a foot-rest. +"Besides," he added tranquilly; "to-morrow is Boxing Day, and the +bank won't be open until the day after. You know you can't buy +anything more than a pink-bordered handkerchief out of your present +supplies." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be too sure I can make out even that," he said, as he dived +into the trunk and pulled out a Klondyke sleeping-bag. +</P> + +<P> +Carew watched him from between half-closed lids. +</P> + +<P> +"Going beddy?" he inquired. +</P> + +<P> +"Confound it, no! I thought my calling kit was in there." A pair of +dark gray blankets landed in the corner on top of the sleeping-bag. +</P> + +<P> +"That looks jolly comfortable. You'd better bunk in there, and leave +the bed to me," Carew advised him. "You're in the wrong trunk for +your calling clothes, anyway. What under heaven do you want of them, +Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't want them to lie all in a heap." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll lie in heaps for a good long time, before you are out of +this country," Carew predicted cheerfully. "Moreover, from the look +of the place, you could make calls in either pajamas or khaki, and +it would pass muster. I saw one fellow, this noon, in evening +clothes and a collar button. Besides, there isn't anybody for us to +call on." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon smiled contentedly, as he drew out a frock-coat and inspected +its satin-faced lapels. +</P> + +<P> +"Not for you, perhaps," he observed quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see." Carew puffed vigorously. "So you have a bidding to call +upon Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon dislodged Carew's feet from the extra chair and utilized the +chairback as a temporary coat-rack. +</P> + +<P> +"No; quite the contrary," he replied. "I am invited to call upon +Miss Ophelia Arthur. Now you will please to keep quiet, for I think +I shall go to bed." +</P> + +<P> +In silence, Carew watched him half through the process of +undressing. Then, emptying his pipe and snapping open its case, he +rose and faced his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Weldon," he said sententiously; "we don't care to hang around this +place longer than we must; and we shall have all we can do to get +ourselves enlisted and our horses into condition. We haven't time +for much else. I hope you will remember that you came out here, not +to fuss the girls, but for the fuss with the Boers." +</P> + +<P> +From his seat on the edge of the bed, Weldon eyed him amicably. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't preach, Carew," he answered coolly. "It doesn't do my soul +any good, and it only renders you a bore. It has always been a +clause of my creed that two good things are better than one." +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, in spite of his haste to unpack his calling clothes, +it was full three days later that Weldon turned his face eastward in +search of the home of Ethel Dent. Moreover, in all those three days, +he had given scarcely a thought to the companion of his voyage. +Notwithstanding his first impressions, Weldon had found much to +interest him in Cape Town. The streets, albeit unlovely, were full +of novel sights and the patter of novel tongues. Cape carts and +Kaffirs, traction engines and troopers, khaki everywhere and yet +more khaki, and, rising grimly behind it all, the naked face of +Table Mountain covered with its cloth of clouds! It was all a tumult +of busy change, bounded by the unchanging and the eternal. For one +entire morning, Weldon loitered about the streets, viewing all +things with his straightforward Canadian gaze, jostling and jostled +by turns. War had ceased to be a myth, and, of a sudden, was become +a grim reality; yet in the face of it all his courage never +faltered. His sole misgivings concerned themselves with the contrast +between the seasoned regulars marching to their station, and his +boyish self, full of eager enthusiasm, but trained only in the +hunting field, the polo ground and the gymnasium. Then, gripping his +hope in both hands, he resolutely shouldered his way into the +nearest recruiting office. He went into the office as Harvard +Weldon, amateur athlete and society darling of his own home city. He +came out as Trooper Weldon of the First Regiment of Scottish Horse. +</P> + +<P> +He spent the next morning in sorting over his miscellaneous luggage. +In the light of Cape Town and the practical advice which had been +his for the asking, his outfit appeared comically complete. Two +thirds of it must be stored in Cape Town; of the other third, one +full half must be left with the negro servants at the hotel. His +toilet fixtures would have been adequate for a Paris season; his +superfluous rugs would have warmed him during a winter on the apex +of the North Pole. It was with something between a smile and a sigh +that he stowed away the greater part of his waistcoats and neckties, +in company with the silver-mounted medicine chest by which his +mother had set such store. It was as Carew had said: quinine and +tobacco were the main essentials. +</P> + +<P> +Then, for the last time in many months, he arrayed himself in black +cloth and fine linen, chose his stick and gloves with care, and, +leaving Adderley Street behind him, turned eastward towards the home +of the Dents. +</P> + +<P> +He found Ethel on the broad veranda, bordered with flower-boxes and +overlooking the garden and the blue waters of Table Bay. Dressed in +a thin white gown which, to Weldon's mind, was curiously out of +keeping with all his preconceived notions of January weather, she +rose and came forward to greet him at the top of the steps. +</P> + +<P> +"At last," she said cordially, while she gave him her hand. "I began +to fear you had already gone to the front." +</P> + +<P> +"Not without seeing you again," he answered, as he followed her back +to the bamboo chairs at the shaded western end of the veranda. "In +fact, I began to be rather afraid I should never see the front at +all." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. "Has something happened since +I saw you?" +</P> + +<P> +"A great deal has happened. The thing I referred to was my first +sight of British regulars." +</P> + +<P> +Her face cleared. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, is that all?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is a good deal," he assured her, as he sat down. "I came out +here with all sorts of high notions regarding volunteers." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" she questioned smilingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they have been taken out of me. An untrained man isn't worth +much in any line, least of all in the firing line. Still, it would +be very ignominious to go back home again." +</P> + +<P> +Her eyes swept over his alert, well-groomed figure. +</P> + +<P> +"And when do you start for the front, Trooper Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know I start at all?" +</P> + +<P> +"How do I know you are sitting opposite me?" she asked lightly. +"Having eyes, I use them." +</P> + +<P> +"And they tell you—?" he responded. +</P> + +<P> +"That you are looking content with life." +</P> + +<P> +The laughter died out of his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I am," he said gravely; "perfectly content. I am enrolled in the +Scottish Horse, and I go tomorrow." +</P> + +<P> +"The Scottish Horse?" she asked quickly. "Which squadron?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you know anything of it?" +</P> + +<P> +"A little," she answered; "but that little is good. Then it is to +Maitland that you are going?" +</P> + +<P> +"Are you omniscient, Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; merely an inquisitive girl who remembers the answers to the +questions that she asks. My father, you know, is in the thick of +things, and it seems to me I have met half the British army, in the +four days I have been at home." +</P> + +<P> +"Officers, or Tommies?" he reminded her. +</P> + +<P> +She laughed at the recollection of her former prejudice. +</P> + +<P> +"You told the truth, Mr. Weldon. One of the men I danced with, last +season, is riding across Natal in the same squadron with his groom. +In my one London season, I met only officers. Out here, I find Lord +Thomas turned into Tommy Atkins, and I meet him every day. But, +aside from the war, what do you think of Cape Town?" +</P> + +<P> +"What would I think of Table Mountain without its tablecloth?" he +parried. "In both cases, the two things seem inseparable." +</P> + +<P> +"Wait till you know the place better, then," she advised him. "It +really does have a life of its own, apart from its military +setting." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid there's not much chance of my knowing it better," he +answered a little regretfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Maitland is only three miles away, and you've not met my mother +yet," she suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"Is she at home now?" Weldon asked, with the conscious air of a man +suddenly recalled to his social duty. +</P> + +<P> +"Not this afternoon. She has taken Miss Arthur for a drive through +Rondebosch. That is quite one of the things to do, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know. Is the redoubtable Miss Arthur well?" +</P> + +<P> +The dimple beside the girl's firm lips displayed itself suddenly, +and her eyes lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Wonderfully. Her convalescence has been remarkably short. More +remarkable still is the fact that she has neglected to mention her +illness to any one." +</P> + +<P> +"How soon does she go back?" +</P> + +<P> +The blue eyes met his eyes in frank merriment. +</P> + +<P> +"Not until she has finished informing my mother of the present +London code of chaperonage." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon raised his brows. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shall find her here, when I come back at the end of the +war." +</P> + +<P> +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you so much less strict in Canada?" +</P> + +<P> +"We are—different," he confessed. "Miss Arthur's lorgnette would be +impossible with us. I don't mean the lorgnette itself; but the acute +accent which she contrives to give to it. Mrs. Scott is more of a +colonial matron." +</P> + +<P> +"Dear little lady! Have you seen her since she landed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Once. They are at the Mount Nelson, and Carew and I called on them +there. They are leaving for De Aar, Monday." +</P> + +<P> +"And what about Mr. Carew?" +</P> + +<P> +"He goes with me to Maitland. He is Trooper Carew now." +</P> + +<P> +The girl sat staring thoughtfully out across the lawn. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder what sort of a soldier he will make," she said, half to +herself. Weldon faced her sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because life is an embodied joke to him." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon rose a little stiffly. His call had lasted its allotted time; +nevertheless, under other conditions, it might have lasted even +longer. He liked Ethel Dent absolutely; yet now and then she had a +curious fashion of antagonizing him. The alternations of her cordial +moments with her formal ones were no more marked than were the +alternations of her viewpoint. As a rule, she looked on life with +the impartial eyes of a healthy-minded boy; occasionally, however, +she showed herself hidebound by the fetters of tradition, and, worst +of all, she wore the fetters as if they lay loosely upon her. At +such moments, he longed acutely to impress her with his own point of +view, as the only just one possible. +</P> + +<P> +"I think perhaps you don't fully understand Carew, Miss Dent," he +said courteously, yet with a slight accent of finality. "He laughs +at life like a child; but he lives it like a man. I have known him +since we were boys together; I have never known him to shirk or to +funk a difficult point. If the Scottish Horse ever sees the firing +line, it will hold no better trooper than Harry Carew." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed in farewell and turned away. Looking after him, Ethel Dent +told herself that Weldon's simple words had been descriptive, not +only of his friend, but of his loyal, honest self. +</P> + +<P> +Half-way across the heart-shaped bit of lawn enclosed within the +curve of the drive, Weldon met another guest going towards the +steps. There was no need of the trim uniform of khaki serge to +assure him that the man was also a soldier. The starred shoulder +straps were needless to show him that here was one born to command. +Glancing up, Weldon looked into a pair of keen blue eyes exactly on +a level with his own, took swift note of the full, broad forehead, +of the black lashes contrasting with the yellow hair and of the +resolute lines of the shaven chin. Then, mindful of his frock-coat +and shining silk hat, he repressed his inclination to salute, and +walked steadily on, quite unconscious of the part in his life which +the stranger was destined to play, during the coming months. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER FOUR +</H3> + +<P> +Sitting in the lee of the picket fence which bounded Maitland Camp +on the west, Paddy the cook communed with himself, and Weldon and +Carew communed with him. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's long and long yet before a good many of these ones will be +soldiers," he, observed, with a disrespectful wave of his thumb +towards the awkward squad still manoeuvering its way about over the +barren stretch of the parade ground. "They ride like tailors +squatting on their press-boards, and they salute like a parrot +scratching his head with his hind paw. A soldier is like a poet, +born, not made." +</P> + +<P> +In leisurely fashion, Weldon stretched himself at full length and +drew out a slender pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy, if you keep on, I'll fire a kopje at you," he threatened. +</P> + +<P> +Paddy disdained the threat. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be, the kopjes be riveted down on the bottom end of them! But +it's the truth I'm telling. Half of these men is afraid of their +lives, when they're on a horse." +</P> + +<P> +"The horses of South Africa are divided into two classes," Carew +observed sententiously; "the American ones that merely buck, and the +cross-eyed Argentine ones that grin at you like a Cheshire cat, +after they have done it. Both are bad for the nerves. Still, I'd +rather be respectfully bucked, than bucked and then laughed at, +after the catastrophe occurs. Paddy, my knife has been splitting +open its handle. What's to be done about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let's see." +</P> + +<P> +Bending forward, Carew drew the black-handled knife and fork from +the coils of his putties. In the orderly surroundings of Maitland +Camp, there was no especial need of his adopting the storage methods +of the trek; nevertheless, he had taken to the new idea with prompt +enthusiasm. Up to that time, it had never occurred to him to bandage +his legs with khaki, and then convert the bandages into a species of +portable sideboard. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy," Weldon remonstrated; "don't stop to play with his knife. No +matter if it is cracked. So is he, for the matter of that. Go and +tell your menial troop to remember to put a little beef in the soup, +this noon. I am tired of sipping warm water and onion juice." +</P> + +<P> +"What time is it, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"My watch says eleven; but my stomach declares it is half-past two. +Trot along, there's a good Paddy. And don't forget to tie a pink +string to my piece of meat, when you give it to the orderly. Else I +may not know it's the best one." With a reluctant yawn and a glance +upward towards the sun, Paddy scrambled to his feet and brushed +himself off with the outspread palms of his stubby hands. Then he +turned to the men behind him. +</P> + +<P> +"Stick your fork back in your putties, Mr. Carew, and I'll send you +a knife to go with it. As long as Paddy manages the cooking tent, +the cracked knives shall go to the dunderheads. The best isn't any +too good for them as rides like you and Mr. Weldon, and drinks no +rum at all." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon eyed him mockingly. +</P> + +<P> +"And gives their ration of rum to Paddy," he added. "Go along, man, +and set your kettles to boiling, while you return thanks that you +know a good thing when you see it." +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy is a great boy," Carew observed, as the little Irishman +saluted them in farewell, then turned and strolled away in the +direction of his quarters. +</P> + +<P> +"And, what's more, a most outrageously good cook," Weldon assented. +"If Paddy's ambition to shoot a gun should ever be fulfilled, +England might gain a soldier; but it would lose a chef of the cordon +bleu." +</P> + +<P> +"If I were to choose, I'd sacrifice his sense of taste for the sake +of keeping his sense of humor," Carew returned. "Not even war can +subdue Paddy." +</P> + +<P> +With a disdainful gesture, Weldon pointed out across the sun-baked +parade ground with the stem of his pipe. +</P> + +<P> +"War! This?" he protested. "It is nothing in this world but a Sunday +school picnic." +</P> + +<P> +And Carew, as his eyes followed the pointing pipe-stem, was forced +to give his assent. +</P> + +<P> +It was now five days since, with scores of their mates, Weldon and +Carew had been passed from their medical examination to the double +test of their riding and their shooting. Elated by their threefold +recommendation, they had lost no time in donning their khaki and +taking up their quarters under the fraction of canvas allotted to +them. The days that followed were busy and slid past with a certain +monotony, notwithstanding their varied routine. From morning stables +at seven until evening stables at six, each hour held its duty, for +in that regular, clock-marked life, recreation was counted a duty +just as surely as were the daily drills. +</P> + +<P> +Carew, trained on the football field, took to the foot drill as a +duck takes to water. Weldon was in his glory on mounted parade. One +summer spent on an Alberta ranch had taught him the tricks of the +broncho-buster, and five o'clock invariably found him pirouetting +across the parade ground on the back of the most vicious mount to be +found within the limits of Maitland. More than once there had been a +breathless pause while the entire squadron had waited to watch the +killing of Trooper Weldon; more than once there had been an utterly +profane pause while the officers had waited for Trooper Weldon to +bring his bolting steed back into some semblance of alignment. The +pause always ended with Weldon upright in his saddle, his face +beaming with jovial smiles and his horse ranged up with mathematical +precision. The delays were by no means helpful to discipline. +Nevertheless, the officers yielded to the inevitable with the better +grace, inasmuch as no one else would voluntarily trust life and limb +to the vicious beasts in which Weldon's soul delighted. +</P> + +<P> +Twice already, during the past five days, Weldon had handed over to +the authorities a chastened and obedient pony, and had made petition +to select a fresh and untrammelled spirit. The one of the afternoon +before had been the most untrammelled he had as yet attempted. The +contest had begun with the first touch of the saddle. It had +continued with Weldon's being borne across the camp on the back of a +little gray broncho who was making tentative motions towards a +complete handspring. By the time the pony was convinced of the +proper function of her own hind legs, Weldon found himself being +driven from the door of the cooking tent by Paddy and a volley of +potatoes. The broncho surveyed Paddy with scorn, rose to her hind +legs and strolled towards the corner of the camp sacred to visitors. +There she delivered herself of one final, mighty buck. When Weldon +regained the perpendicular, he found himself directly facing the +merry, admiring eyes of Ethel Dent. By Ethel's side, mounted on a +huge khaki-colored horse, sat the man he had met, only the week +before, in the driveway of the Dents' home. +</P> + +<P> +Scarlet with his exertions, grimly aware that his sleeve was pulled +from its armhole and his left puttie was strained out of its usual +compact folds, nevertheless Weldon saluted her smilingly and, his +mount well in hand, galloped off in search of his squadron. That +night, however, his clear baritone voice was missing from the usual +chorus about the camp fire; and, as he thoughtfully drained his tin +billy of coffee, next morning, he was revolving in mind the relative +merits of his banker and a dead mother-in-law, as excuses for +demanding a pass to town, that afternoon. +</P> + +<P> +However, afternoon found him moodily riding about the camp. His body +was on a subdued gray broncho; his mind was solely upon Ethel and +her companion. He liked the girl for herself, as well as for the +fact that, in this remote corner of the world, she represented the +sole bit of feminine companionship which is the rightful heritage of +every son of Eve. True, there was Miss Arthur; but Miss Arthur was +antediluvian. Under these conditions, it was galling to Weldon to +see Ethel absorbed by a comrade who, he frankly admitted to himself, +was far the more personable man of the two. And the girl's blue eyes +had laughed up into the eyes of the stranger just exactly as, two +short weeks before, they had laughed up into his own. Then the +little gray broncho jumped cornerwise, and Weldon had difficulty in +impressing upon her that handsprings were not an approved form of +cavalry tactics. Nevertheless, he did it with a word of apology. For +the moment, the broncho was not wholly responsible for her return to +evil ways. +</P> + +<P> +Over their breakfast, next morning, his five tentmates fell to +catechising him as to his pensive mood, and their catechism was +largely intermingled with chaff. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy's compliments, and roll up for your tucker," the mess orderly +proclaimed, as he came into the tent, brandishing a coffee pot in +one hand, the frying pan in the other. +</P> + +<P> +Fork in hand, Carew nevertheless paused to take exception to the +word. +</P> + +<P> +"I confess I can't see why Tucker, when it is supposed to untuck the +creases of us," he observed. "Hermit, shall I serve you in the +corner; or will you deign to join us about the festive frying pan?" +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter with Weldon, anyhow?" another of the group +queried, as dispassionately as if the subject of discussion had been +absent in Rhodesia. "His face is a yard long, and his lips hang down +in the slack of the corners." +</P> + +<P> +"Brace up, man, and get over your grouch," a third adjured him. "You +are worse than O'Brien was, the morning after he was shoved in kink. +Were you in Cape Town, last night?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not a bit of it," Carew put in hastily, while he buried his knife-blade +in the nearest pot of jam. "My left ear can prove an alibi for +him. From taps till midnight, Weldon discoursed of all the grewsome +things in the human calendar." +</P> + +<P> +The smallest of the group turned himself about and peered up into +Weldon's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Homesick, man?" he queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Sure," Weldon replied imperturbably. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh. Then get over it. Just dream of the days when the bronchos +cease from bucking and the Stringies shoot no more. Meanwhile, if +you could look pleasant, as the photographers say, it would help on +things wonderfully." +</P> + +<P> +But the mess orderly interrupted. He had tidings to impart, and they +burned upon his tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you heard about Eaton-Hill?" he asked, in the first pause that +offered itself. +</P> + +<P> +Five faces turned to him with gratifying expectancy. Eaton-Hill had +come out on the Dunottar Castle. He was known to them all as the +acknowledged exquisite of the entire camp. +</P> + +<P> +"What about him?" +</P> + +<P> +"C. B. I met him coming out of the orderly room." +</P> + +<P> +"Hm! Camp scavenger. Eaton-Hill will like that," Weldon commented +dryly. "What's the row about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cupid apparently. He went calling in Cape Town, last night, without +leave, stayed till past eleven and undertook to come in by sea. He +shipped in a leaky boat with a crew composed of one Kaffir boy; the +Kaffir funked the surf; they had an upset and Eaton-Hill waked up +the picket by the fervor of his swearing at the half-drowned +Kaffir." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Eaton-Hill! Both his morals and his clothes must have +suffered," Carew suggested. "Weldon, take warning. Next time you go +to call on Miss Arthur, start early and be sure you have your pass +pinned to the lining of your coat." +</P> + +<P> +"Who is Miss Arthur?" demanded the chorus. +</P> + +<P> +Deliberately Carew helped himself to the last of the bacon. Then he +made answer, with equal deliberation,— +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Arthur is Weldon's lawful chaperon." +</P> + +<P> +At four o'clock, that afternoon, Weldon arose reluctantly from his +seat on the western end of the Dents' veranda. +</P> + +<P> +"Parade at five, Miss Dent, and Maitland Camp is four miles away." +</P> + +<P> +Without rising, she smiled up into his waiting eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You made more than four miles an hour, when Captain Frazer and I +were watching you, the other day, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, twenty at least. Still, as you may have noticed, my mount +doesn't always choose the straightest course. If she elects to go to +Maitland by way of Durban, it will take me all of the hour to make +the journey." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed at his words. Then of a sudden her face grew grave. +</P> + +<P> +"They've no right to give you such a horse, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +"Right? Oh, I beg pardon. I chose it." +</P> + +<P> +"Is your life so unhappy?" she questioned, in mocking rebuke. +</P> + +<P> +"It is no suicidal mania, Miss Dent," he reassured her. "I like the +rush and excitement of it all; but I had a summer on a ranch, and I +learned the trick of sitting tight until the beast tires itself out. +Broncho-busting is only a concrete form of philosophy, after all." +</P> + +<P> +"And must you really go?" she asked him. +</P> + +<P> +He lingered and hesitated. Then, with a glance at the horse fastened +to a post in the drive below, he straightened his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"I must." +</P> + +<P> +She rose to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Good afternoon, then." +</P> + +<P> +"And good by," he added. +</P> + +<P> +"What does that mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"That we leave Maitland Camp in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry," she said, and her voice showed her regret. "Where are +you going?" +</P> + +<P> +"To Maitland station. Then into a train. Beyond that, I do not +know." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry," she repeated; "but very glad. It is time you were +doing something. I know you didn't take all this journey out here +for the sake of being drilled in Maitland Camp until the end of +time. We shall miss you; but you will come back to us, some day, and +tell us all the story of your deeds. Success to you, Trooper +Weldon!" +</P> + +<P> +She gave him her hand; then stood looking after him, as he went down +the steps. Once in the saddle, he turned back to wave a farewell to +the tall girl framed in the arching greenery that sheltered the +broad veranda. Then, urging on his horse, he went galloping away, +his boyish face turned resolutely towards the front. +</P> + +<P> +Careless of the oldtime superstition, the girl watched him out of +sight. Then slowly she moved back to their deserted corner where she +sat long, her elbows on the arms of her chair and her chin resting +on her hands. Her eyes were held steadily on Table Bay; but her +thoughts followed along the road to Maitland Camp—and beyond. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER FIVE +</H3> + +<P> +That January had brought the second irruption of Boers into Cape +Colony. In reality, they were near Calvinia; but, by the middle of +the month, rumor had so far out-stripped fact that certain refugee +Uitlanders were ready to affirm that Table Mountain was held by an +invading army who patrolled the summit, coffee pot in one hand and +Bible in the other. Under these conditions, the little Dutch church +at Piquetberg Road had become, in all truth, the abiding-place of +the Church Militant. +</P> + +<P> +In deference to tradition, the altar had been promptly pulled down +and its ornaments stowed away to be safe from possible desecration. +The altar rail was left, however, and Weldon sat leaning against it, +his eyes vaguely turned upwards to the organ in the farther end of +the church. From the open floor between, the buzz of many voices and +the smoke of many pipes rose to the roof; from the vestry room +behind him, he heard the cleaner-cut accent of the officers. +Outside, above the light spatter of rain on the windows, he could +hear the horses stamping contentedly in the leafy avenue without the +churchyard wall, and the brawl of the stream beyond. The twilight +lay heavy over the church, heaviest of all over the distant organ +gallery, where Weldon could barely make out a single figure moving +towards the bench. There was a rattle of stops, a tentative chord or +two and then a few notes of this or that melody, as if the player, +albeit a musician, found himself continually thwarted by the +darkness and the absence of any printed notes. +</P> + +<P> +"Who is up there, Weldon?" Carew asked, as he peered up into the +dimness. +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up; can't you?" Weldon ordered him abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +And Carew subsided, just as the unseen organist, apparently +abandoning his more ambitious efforts, with sure touch swept into +the familiar harmonies of the Eventide Hymn, and then, still with +his hymnal in mind, jerked out the dozen stops and set the air +rocking to the steady beat of Onward, Christian Soldiers. +</P> + +<P> +As he listened, Weldon's mind went backward to his last Sunday +evening in the cathedral at home. He had known why the old rector +had chosen that time-worn hymn for a recessional; he could still +feel the stir of the congregation as he passed them, still see the +scarlet blot of color made by his own hymnal against his stiffly +starched cotta, still see his mother, erect and pale, staring at him +with a resolute bravery which matched his own. Since then, he had +been inside no church until to-day. It was a far cry from +worshipping in the Gothic cathedral to camping in the simple little +Dutch church; but in each the air was vibrating to the same martial +hymn. +</P> + +<P> +Little by little, the groups scattered over the floor fell into +silence. Here and there, one took up the refrain, now humming it +softly, now singing it with full voice. Then the refrain died away; +there was an instant's hush, an instant's modulation; and, as a man, +the crowd beneath rose to their feet and stood, pipe in hand, while +slowly, steadily from the organ came rolling down the familiar notes +of God Save the Queen. +</P> + +<P> +The organ was closed with a muffled clatter, the organist rose and +slowly came down to the floor. With a friendly word here and there, +he passed among the troopers who saluted him and then settled +themselves again for comfort and their pipes. Last of all, he paused +beside Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +"It is good to put my fingers on the keys again," he said, as he sat +down for a moment on the low rail. "We had an organ at home, and I +miss it. I builded better than I knew, when I chose this place for +our barracks. One rarely finds an organ out here." +</P> + +<P> +Just then an orderly lighted the chancel where they stood. The +organist gave a slight exclamation of surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't this Trooper Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +The speaker's face was in shadow. Only the starred shoulder straps +gave Weldon any clue to the rank of his companion. +</P> + +<P> +"It is," he answered briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Dent has spoken of you. In fact, we were together at Maitland +Camp, last week, when you tried issues with the little gray +broncho." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, he moved slightly, and the light fell full upon his +yellow hair and on his blue eyes, dark and fringed with long black +lashes. Weldon looked up at him with a smile of recognition. +</P> + +<P> +"It is Captain Frazer, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I am congratulating you on having won your way into Miss +Dent's good graces. She tells me you were most thoughtful for her, +all the way out." +</P> + +<P> +"You have known Miss Dent for a long time?" Weldon queried. +</P> + +<P> +Captain Frazer answered the question as frankly as it was asked. For +the moment, they were man and man. In a moment more, they could +resume their formal relations of captain and soldier. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew her well in England. We met at one or two house parties, a +year ago last fall. I was at her coming-out function, too." Then he +rose. "I shall see you again," he added formally. "Now I wish to +make my round of the guards." And, turning, he went striding away +towards his own quarters in the vestry. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon looked after him thoughtfully. Then he uttered terse +judgment. +</P> + +<P> +"Carew, that's a man," he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Quite likely," Carew assented. "Women don't usually wear khaki. +Shall we go in search of Paddy?" +</P> + +<P> +They found him smoking tranquilly by the churchyard gate. The old +stone wall towering above his head made good shelter from the +drizzle; and Paddy, his day's labor done, was leaning back at his +ease, exchanging adverse compliments with the half-dozen sentries +who patrolled the wall. He hailed Weldon with cordiality. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along here, little Canuck," he called. "There's room for the +two of us and fine smoking. Mr. Carew can stay out in the rain. It's +worth his while, even then, for the sake of watching that pigeon-toed +cockney in the oilskins, him as is stubbing his toes in the +sand, this blessed minute." +</P> + +<P> +"Shut up, Paddy," his victim retorted hotly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's you that should shut up and teach the toes of you to walk +hushlike. If you go on like this, you living watchman's rattle, the +Boers can hear you, clear up in the Transvaal. Tell me, little one, +have you seen your captain yet?" +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Frazer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Captain Leo Frazer, sure as you're a trooper of C. Squadron. +You're in luck, boy. There's not a better soldier nor a finer +Christian, this side the line. Neptune must have give him an extry +scrubbing, when he come over, for he's white he is, all white. +Boys!" Paddy spoke in a portentous whisper. +</P> + +<P> +"Let her go," Weldon advised him calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"It goes without letting. Once let Paddy get free of his skillets, +once let him have a rifle in place of his spoon, and you'll see war. +The Kingdom of Heaven is a spot of everlasting peace. All I ask of +Saint Peter is a place in front of a line of Boers and Captain +Frazer beside me to give the orders." +</P> + +<P> +"Here he is, Paddy." The low-pitched voice was full of mirth. "He +orders you inside your tent to plan up an extra good breakfast. Some +of these fellows must volunteer for a night guard out in the open, +and they will need a feast, when they come in." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon rose hastily. +</P> + +<P> +"At your service, Captain," he said, just as Paddy, in nowise +daunted by the unexpected presence of his superior, responded,— +</P> + +<P> +"Sure, Captain, I put a condition on the tail of it. If you'll +remember back a little, you'll see that I merely said, 'when I get a +rifle instead of a spoon.' It's a sorry day for an able-bodied man +to be tied to a frying pan all his days. Now and then he longs to +leap out and get into the fire." +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, half of the men inside the church were volunteering for +the party of twenty guards demanded by the Captain. It was a surly +night, cold and raw with a drizzling rain. Nevertheless, this was +their first approach to anything even remotely resembling active +service, and the men sought it eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +By dint of attaching himself to the Captain's elbow and assuming +that his going was an understood thing, Weldon accomplished his aim. +Eleven o'clock found him, wet to his skin, sneaking on the points of +his toes through the thick grass beyond the river, with nineteen +other men sneaking at his heels. There had been no especial pretext +of Boers in the neighborhood; tactical thoroughness merely demanded +a guard on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless, the +enthusiastic fellows threw themselves into the game with the same +spirit with which, twenty years before, they had faced the danger of +a runaway by the tandem of rampant hall chairs. A stray Boer or two +would have made an interesting diversion; but, even without the +Boers, a night guard in the open possessed its own interest. +</P> + +<P> +By four in the morning, the interest had waned perceptibly. The +establishment of their force in a convenient hut and the placing of +pickets had served to occupy an hour or so. After that, nothing +happened. The storm was increasing. The rain beat ceaselessly on the +corrugated iron roof of their shelter and made a dreary bass +accompaniment to the strident tenor of the rising wind. Inside the +but the men yawned and whispered together by turns. Carew's best +jokes began to fall a little flat, and Weldon held his watch to his +ear, to assure himself that it was still in active service. Then +hastily he thrust the watch into his pocket, gathered up his +sleeping-bag and removed himself to a remote corner of the hut, with +Carew and a dozen more after him. +</P> + +<P> +Not even the most enthusiastic champion of South African rights can +affirm that the South African citizen is heedful of the condition of +his lesser buildings. The rising wind had proved too much for the +hut. Its joints writhed a little, seesawed up and down a little, +then yawned like a weary old man. From a dozen points above, the +rain came pattering down, seeking with unerring instinct that +precise spot on each man's back where skin and collar meet. +</P> + +<P> +"Whither?" Carew queried, as Weldon made his fifth move. +</P> + +<P> +"Outside, to see what the pickets are about." +</P> + +<P> +"But it rains," Carew protested lazily. +</P> + +<P> +"So I observe. Still, I'd rather take it outside as it comes, +instead of having a gutter empty itself on me, when I am supposed to +be under cover." +</P> + +<P> +"Better stay in," Carew advised him. +</P> + +<P> +"No use. Sleep is out of the question, and I'd rather be moving; it +is less monotonous." +</P> + +<P> +"Go along, then, and look out for Boers. Can I have your bag?" +</P> + +<P> +"You're too wet; you'd soak up all the inside of it. If I am to get +a chill, I'd rather do it from my dampness than your own." Carew +laid hands on the bag. +</P> + +<P> +"What a selfish beast you are, Weldon!" he observed tranquilly. +"This is no sack-race; you can't go out to walk in your bag. In +fact, it takes two to make a navigable pair. Then why not let me +have it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why didn't you bring your own?" +</P> + +<P> +Already Carew was arranging himself in his new covering. +</P> + +<P> +"I mislaid mine in Cape Town," he replied sleepily. "Now please go +away. I need my beauty nap." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later, he was roused by a sharp reversal of his normal +position. When he became fully awake, he was lying in a pool of +water in the middle of the hut, and Weldon was in possession of the +blankets and bag. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the row?" he asked thickly. "I'm a Canadian, out here +shooting Boers. Oh, I say!" And he was on his feet, saluting the man +at Weldon's side. +</P> + +<P> +"The only bag in the squadron, Captain Frazer," Weldon was +explaining. "The blankets are quite dry. Roll yourself up, and you +will be warm in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Carew surveyed the transfer with merry, impartial eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I like that," he said, when the Captain's yellow head was all +that was visible above the encircling cocoon. "I thought you said +that you preferred to catch cold from your own wetness, Weldon. I +was merely damp; this man is a sponge." +</P> + +<P> +Before Weldon could answer, the yellow head turned, and the blue +eyes looked up into Carew's eyes laughingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Merely one of the privileges of rank, Carew," the Captain observed +as dryly as if he had not risen from his warm bed to swim the river +and walk a mile in the darkness and the downpour, in order to see +how the new boys were getting on. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER SIX +</H3> + +<P> +Captain Leo Frazer, age thirty and an Englishman, had a trick of +looking Fate between the eyes with those black-fringed blue eyes of +his, of accepting its gifts with gratitude, its occasional knocks +with cheery optimism. At Rugby he had ultimately been captain of the +school; at Oxford he had been of equal prowess in rowing and +football. Since taking his degree, he had been a successful doctor +in the intervals of time allowed him by his membership in one of the +crack regiments at home. He had never seriously contemplated the +possibility of active service; but Colenso had been too strong a +pull upon him. Leaving some scores of sorrowing patients to bemoan +him as already dead, he had promptly shipped for Cape Town. The year +of grace nineteen hundred had found him on the scene at most of its +exciting events. Where Fate refused to take him, he asserted his +strong hand and took Fate, until that weary lady was forced to go +hopping about the map of South Africa with the agility of a sand +flea. +</P> + +<P> +In battle, Frazer was always in the thickest spatter of bullets, +where he bowed himself to the inevitable and lay prone, though with +his face turned to one side to give free passage to the chaff which +carried his comrades through so many grim hours. In the presence of +danger, his humor never failed him. In those sorrowful hours which +followed the cessation of firing, no man was in greater demand than +he. Many a brave fellow had died with his hand shut fast over +Frazer's long, slim fingers; many a man's first, awful moments in +hospital had been soothed by the touch of those same firm, slim +hands. And in the singsongs around the camp fire, or at the mess +table, Frazer's voice was always heard, no matter how great the +tumult of a moment before. +</P> + +<P> +Like many another of his countrymen, Captain Frazer had learned +lessons since he had left the ship at Cape Town, just a year before. +He had come out from England, trained to the inflexibly formal +tactics of the British army. Again and again he had seen those +tactics proved of no avail in the face of an invisible enemy and an +almost inexpugnable country. He had learned the nerve-racking +tension of being exposed to a storm of bullets that came apparently +from nowhere to cut down the British lines as the hail cuts down the +standing grain; he had learned the shock of seeing the level veldt, +over which he was marching, burst into a line of fire at his very +feet from a spot where it seemed that scarce a dozen men could lie +in hiding, to say nothing of a dozen scores. He had learned that, +under such fire, a man's first duty was to drop flat on his face, to +push up a tiny breastwork of earth and to fire from behind that +slender shelter. England could not afford to send her sons over seas +for the sake of having them slaughtered by needless obedience to the +laws of martial good form. Fighting a nation of hunters, they too +must adopt the methods of the hunt. And, most of all, Captain Frazer +had learned the imperative need of mounted riflemen. Two months +before, while lying up at Durban until his wrist had healed from a +Mauser bullet, he had come into close contact with the Marquis of +Tullibardine. As a result of that contact, January had found Captain +Frazer in Cape Town, ready to take command of the newly enlisted +Scottish Horse. +</P> + +<P> +Now, as he looked over his force at Piquetberg Road, he was +congratulating himself that his men were fit for service, very fit. +Frazer knew something of men. Experience had assured him that these +men were worth training and his months of service under the great +Field Marshal had taught him that an officer could be a man among +his men, yet lose not one jot of his dignity. Accordingly, Frazer +set himself to the task in band. By the time he had been at +Piquetberg Road for two days, he knew the name and face of every man +in his squadron. A week later he could tell to a nicety which of his +men were engaged to girls at home, which of them had heard of one +Rudyard Kipling, and which of them could be counted upon in an +emergency. The two latter counts Weldon filled absolutely. In regard +to the first, Frazer permitted himself a moment of acute uneasiness. +It had been in a spirit of unmitigated joy that Frazer had met Ethel +Dent in Cape Town, on the morning of New Year's day. In London he +had known the girl just well enough to admire her intensely, not +well enough, however, to have found out that she had any permanent +connection with South Africa. His joy had lasted until the hour of +his calling upon her, three days later; then it had received a +sudden check. Ethel had been as cordial as ever; nevertheless, her +talk had been full of the young Canadian whom he had met in the +drive. Frazer was intensely human. After a year of separation he +would have preferred to bound the talk by the experiences of their +two selves. +</P> + +<P> +As a natural consequence, he had developed a strong prejudice +against Weldon; but Weldon, all unconsciously, had done much to +remove that prejudice. Not every man could manage a crazy, bucking +broncho in any such fashion as that; fewer still could come out of +the scrimmage, unhurt, to bow to a young woman with a cordiality +quite untinged with boyish bravado. That day at Maitland, Frazer had +registered his mental approval of the long-legged, lean Canadian +with his keen gray eyes and his wrists of bronze. He had registered +a second note of approval, that first night at Piquetberg Road, when +Weldon, with no unnecessary words, had contrived to impress upon the +mind of his captain that he was to be included in the guard to cross +the river. Totally obedient and respectful, Weldon nevertheless had +given the impression of a man who intended to win his own way. +Moreover, the direction of that way appeared to be straight towards +the front. +</P> + +<P> +Meanwhile, peacefully unconscious of this diagnosis, Weldon was +sitting on the river bank, prosaically occupied in scooping out the +remaining taste left in an almost-empty jam tin. Beside him, Carew +was similarly occupied. Two more jam tins were between them and, +exactly opposite the pair of jam tins, there squatted a burly +Kaffir, young, alert and crowned with a thatch of hair which by +rights should have sprouted from the back of a sable pig. His mouth +was slightly open, and now and then his tongue licked out, like the +tongue of an eager dog. Aside from his hair, his costume consisted +of one black sock worn in lieu of muffler and a worn pair of khaki +trousers. +</P> + +<P> +Behind him, the river caught the sunset light and turned it to a +sheet of flowing copper; beyond stretched the open country in long, +waving lines that ended in the deep yellow band of the afterglow. +Above them, the sky was blue; but it dropped from the blue zenith to +the yellow horizon through every imaginable shade of emerald and +topaz until all other shades lost themselves in one vivid blaze of +burnt orange. It had been a day of intense heat. Already, however, +the falling twilight and the inevitable eastward shift of the wind +had brought the first hint of the evening chill. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon shrugged his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurry up, Carew," he adjured his companion. "I am for leaving our +feast and hieing us back to the sanctuary." +</P> + +<P> +"Right, oh!" Carew raised his jam tin and took careful aim at a rock +in mid stream. +</P> + +<P> +Instantly the Kaffir hitched forward. +</P> + +<P> +"Mine?" he demanded. +</P> + +<P> +Carew stayed his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"Eat. Um good." +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing in there but atmosphere, sonny. You can get that out of any +box. Suppose I can hit that little black point, Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not if I know it," Weldon said coolly, as he tossed his own tin to +the boy and, seizing that of Carew, threw it after its mate. "Let +the little coon have his lick, Carew. It's not pretty to watch him +go at it, tongue first; but we can't all be Chesterfields. What is +your name, sonny?" +</P> + +<P> +The boy paused with suspended tongue, while he rolled the great +whites of his eyes up at the questioner. Then, the whites still +turned upon Weldon, he took one more hasty lick. +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Roberts," he said then, detaching himself for an instant +from his treasure. "Oh, I infer you like to sit on fences?" Weldon +said interrogatively. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya, Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"Which side do you intend to come down?" +</P> + +<P> +"Me no come down," the boy answered nonchalantly, more from inherent +indifference than from any comprehension of Weldon's allegory. +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Stop where you are. Meanwhile, I think I should call you +Jamboree." +</P> + +<P> +"Ya, Boss." The face vanished from sight behind the tilted tin. Then +it reappeared, and a huge finger pointed to the remaining tins. +"Mine, too?" +</P> + +<P> +But already the boy was forgotten. Weldon was following hard on the +heels of the sentry who had dashed through the gate in the +churchyard wall. +</P> + +<P> +Four o'clock the next morning, that darkest hour which, by its very +darkness, heralds the coming dawn, found C. Squadron moving out from +the gray-walled churchyard, their faces set towards the eastern +mountains. All night long they had stood under arms, ready for the +attack which might be at hand. By dawn, they were well on their way +towards the laager, fifteen miles distant, whence had come the +scouting hand of Boers who, for two days past, had made leisurely +efforts to pick off their scattered sentinels. At the head of the +little troop rode Frazer. Behind him and as close to his heels as +military law allowed, came Weldon, mounted on the same little black +horse which had so often carried him to the hunt at home. Horse and +rider both sniffed the chilly dawn with eager anticipation. Each +knew that something was in store for them; each contrived to impress +upon the other his determination to make a record, whatever +happened. For one short minute, Weldon let his strong hand rest on +the satiny neck. He could feel the answering pressure of the muscles +beneath the shining skin. That was enough. He and The Nig were in +perfect understanding, one with another. +</P> + +<P> +"Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +He spurred forward to the Captain's side and saluted. +</P> + +<P> +"In the flurry, last night, I forgot to tell you that Miss Dent +comes to Piquetberg Road, to-day. She is to visit a cousin, Miss +Mellen; and she wished me to tell you that she hoped you could find +time to call upon her." +</P> + +<P> +The Captain spoke low, his eyes, after the first moment, steadily +fixed upon the line of hills before them. Weldon answered in the +same low tone. +</P> + +<P> +"You have heard from Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. A note came, last night. She is to be here for a month, while +her uncle is in England on a business trip. Mr. Mellen is the mayor. +You probably know the house." +</P> + +<P> +"I can easily find it. Please tell Miss Dent I shall be sure to call +as—" +</P> + +<P> +A blinding flash ran along the line of hills close in the foreground +where, an instant before, had been only empty ground. There was a +sharp crackle, a strident hum and then the muffled plop of bullets +burying themselves in the earth six hundred feet in the rear. The +Nig grew taut in every muscle; then she edged slowly towards the +huge khaki-colored horse that bore the Captain, and, for an instant, +the two muzzles touched. +</P> + +<P> +"Too long a range, man. Try it again," Frazer observed coolly, as +his glance swept the empty landscape, then, turning, swept the faces +of his men. +</P> + +<P> +That last sight was to his liking. He nodded to himself and +straightened in his saddle, while the orders dropped from his lips, +swift, clean-cut and brooking no question nor delay. Ten men went +galloping off far to the southward, to vanish among the foothills +and reappear on the pass behind the enemy, while a dozen Boers, +springing up from the bowels of the earth, followed hard on their +heels. Ten more took the horses and fell back out of range of the +firing; and the remainder of the squadron stayed in their places and +helped to play out the game. +</P> + +<P> +It was all quite simple, all a matter of course. Instead of the fuss +and fume and chaos of fighting, it had worked itself out like a +problem in mathematics, and Weldon, as he lay on the ground with his +Lee-Enfield cuddled into the curve of his shoulder, felt himself +reducing it to a pair of simultaneous equations: if X Britons equal +Y Boers on the firing line, and Y Britons draw off the fire of W +Boers, then how many Britons—But there came a second flash and a +second spatter, nearer, this time; and he lost his mathematics in a +sudden rush of bad temper which made him long to fly at the +invisible foe and beat him about the head with his clubbed rifle. It +was no especial satisfaction for a man in his position to climb up +on his elbow and help to discharge a volley at an empty landscape. +The war pictures he had been prone to study in his boyhood had been +full of twisty-necked prancing horses and bright-coated swaggering +men, all on their feet, and very hot and earnest. Here the picture +was made up of a row of brown-clothed forms lying flat on their +stomachs and, far before them, a single flat-topped hill and a few +heaps of scattered black rocks. And this was modern war. +</P> + +<P> +There came a third blaze, a third hum of Mauser bullets. Then he +heard a swift intake of the breath, followed by Carew's voice, the +drawling, languid voice which Weldon had learned to associate with +moments of deep excitement. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, Weldon, some beggar has hit me in the shoulder!" +</P> + +<P> +Then of a sudden Weldon realized that at last he knew what it meant +to be under fire. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER SEVEN +</H3> + +<P> +"Oh, truce! Truce!" Alice Mellen protested. "Don't talk shop, +Cooee." +</P> + +<P> +"It's not shop; it is topics of the day," Ethel responded +tranquilly. "Besides, I want to hear about Mr. Carew. Is he +dangerous?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"No, for his wound; yes, for his temper. One was only a scratch; the +other way, he was horribly cut up." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he swear?" Alice queried, while she distributed lumps of sugar +among the cups. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't pretend to be shocked, Cooee. Even if you haven't been out +but one season, you ought to know what happens when a man turns +testy. Frankly, I think it is a healthy sign, if a man stops to +swear when he is hit. It shows there are no morbid secretions." +</P> + +<P> +"You prefer superficial outbreaks, Miss Mellen?" Frazer inquired, as +he handed Ethel her cup. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. They are far less likely to produce mortification later on," +she answered, laughing up into his steady eyes. "What do you do, +when you are hit, Captain Frazer?" +</P> + +<P> +"They call me Lucky Frazer, you know," he replied. "I've been in no +end of scrimmages, and I was never hit but once." +</P> + +<P> +Bending over, Ethel turned back the cloth and thumped on the under +side of the table. +</P> + +<P> +"Unberufen and Absit omen," she said hastily. "Don't tempt +Providence too far, Captain Frazer. At my coming-out reception, I +met a man who boasted that he always broke everything within range, +from hearts to china. Ten minutes later, he tripped over a rug and +fell down on top of the plate of salad he was bringing me. And he +didn't break a thing—" +</P> + +<P> +"Except his own record," Weldon supplemented unexpectedly. "I +suspect he also broke the third commandment. The keeping of that and +the falling down in public are totally incompatible." +</P> + +<P> +"And that reminds me, you were going to tell what Mr. Carew did when +he was hit," Ethel reminded him. +</P> + +<P> +"I never tell tales, Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +"But, really, how does it feel to be under fire?" she persisted. +</P> + +<P> +"Ask Captain Frazer. He has had more experience than I." +</P> + +<P> +She barely turned her eyes towards Frazer's face. +</P> + +<P> +"He is talking to my cousin and won't hear. Were you frightened?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Truly? But you wouldn't confess, if you were." +</P> + +<P> +He blushed at the mockery in her tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Why not? I expected to be desperately afraid; but I was only +desperately angry." +</P> + +<P> +"At what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing. That's the point. There was nothing in sight to be angry +at. Bullets came from nowhere in a pelting shower. Most of them +didn't hit anything; there was no cloud from which the shower could +come. One resented it, without knowing exactly why. It was being the +big fellow who can't hit back when the little one torments him." +</P> + +<P> +"Cooee!" +</P> + +<P> +The remonstrance was long-drawn and forceful. This time, Ethel +heeded. +</P> + +<P> +"What is it, Alice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you remember that, this noon, we agreed not to mention the war? +These men fight almost without ceasing. When they aren't fighting, +they do sentry and stables and things. This is an afternoon off for +them. We really must talk accordingly." +</P> + +<P> +"What are you and Captain Frazer talking about?" +</P> + +<P> +"Cricket and seven-year locusts." +</P> + +<P> +Ethel held out her empty cup. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Then Mr. Weldon and I will discuss mosquitoes and seven-day +Baptists. No sugar, please, and I'd like another of those snappy +things." +</P> + +<P> +"Does that mean a Mauser?" Weldon asked, as he brought back her cup. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I mean biscuits, not cats. But you sinned then. However, my +cousin has her eye upon us, so we must be distinctly frivolous. Is +there any especially peaceful subject you would like to discuss?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Please explain your name." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him with sudden literalness. +</P> + +<P> +"It is for my grandmother. For four hundred years there has been an +Ethel Dent in every generation." +</P> + +<P> +"I meant the other." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Cooee?" She laughed. "It dates from our first coming out here, +when we were children. My old Kaffir nurse—I was only five, that +first trip—used to call me so, and every one took it up. We went +back to England, after a few weeks, and the name was dropped; but my +uncle stayed out here, and he and my cousin always kept the old +word." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon stirred his tea thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"I rather like it, do you know?" he said. +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, you don't think it fits me?" +</P> + +<P> +His eyes moved from her shining hair to the hem of her elaborate +white gown. Then he smiled and shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Not to-day, perhaps. But the Miss Dent of the Dunottar Castle—" +</P> + +<P> +She interrupted him a little abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Does that mean I am two-sided?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; only complex." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled in gracious response. +</P> + +<P> +"You did that very well, Mr. Weldon," she said, with a slight accent +of superiority which galled him. Then, before he could reply, she +changed the subject, speaking with a lowered voice. "And what of the +Captain?" +</P> + +<P> +It suited his mood not to understand her. +</P> + +<P> +"In what way?" +</P> + +<P> +"Every way. What do you think of him?" +</P> + +<P> +Then she drew back, abashed by the fervor of the answer, as he said +slowly,— +</P> + +<P> +"That the Creator made him, and then broke the pattern." +</P> + +<P> +The little pause which followed caught the alert attention of the +hostess, and convinced her that it was time to shift the groups to +another combination. A swift gesture summoned Weldon to the table, +while Frazer dropped into his vacant chair. Ethel met the Captain +with only a half-concealed eagerness. This was not the first time +that a consciously trivial word of hers had been crushed out of life +by Weldon's serious dignity. She was never quite able to understand +his mood upon such occasions. The man was no prig. At times, he was +as merry as a boy. At other times, he showed an inflexible +seriousness which left her with the vague feeling of being somehow +or other in the wrong. The result was a mood of pique, rather than +of antagonism. Up to that time, Ethel Dent had known only unreserved +approval. Weldon's occasional gravity, to her mind, suggested +certain reservations. By way of overcoming these reservations, she +focussed her whole attention upon Captain Leo Frazer. Across the +table, Weldon, in the intervals of his talk with his hostess, could +hear the low murmur of their absorbed conversation. +</P> + +<P> +It had been at Ethel's suggestion that the tea-table had been set, +that hot afternoon, under the trees in the heart of the garden. Just +at the crossing of two broad walks, a vine-roofed kiosk gave shelter +from the late sunshine, while its bamboo screens were half raised to +show the long perspective of garden walk and distant lawn. Save for +the orange grove at the left and the ash-colored leaves of the +silver wattle above them, Weldon could almost have fancied himself +in England. The lawn with its conventional tennis court was +essentially English; English, too, the tray with its fixtures. +There, however, the resemblance stopped. The ebony handmaiden who +brought out the tray was never found in private life outside the +limits of South Africa. When she sought foreign countries, it was +merely as a denizen of a midway plaisance. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and their names are their most distinctive feature," Alice +assented to Weldon's comment. +</P> + +<P> +"More than their mouths?" he asked, with a flippant recollection +of Kruger Roberts engrossed in his jam tin. +</P> + +<P> +"At least as much so," she responded, laughing. "You notice that I +called our maid Syb. She told me, when she came, that her old master +named her Sybarite. I understood it, the next day, when I found her +snoring on the drawing-room sofa." +</P> + +<P> +During the time of her answer, Weldon took his opportunity to look +steadily at his young hostess. Up to the moment of the shifting of +the groups, he had been too fully absorbed in the pleasure of once +more meeting Ethel to pay much heed to any one else. Now he turned +his gray eyes upon Alice Mellen, partly from real interest in her +personality; partly to counterbalance the rapt attention which Ethel +was bestowing upon the Captain. She had been the selfsame Ethel, a +bundle of contradictions that attracted him at one moment and +antagonized him at the next. He liked her absolutely; his very +liking for her increased the sense of antagonism when, for the +instant, she departed from his ideals of what she ought to be. And +yet, Weldon was candid enough to admit to himself that she departed +from them, rather than fell below them. Often as she had antagonized +him, she had never really disappointed him. +</P> + +<P> +As for Alice Mellen, he confessed himself surprised. Gathering +together all that Ethel had ever told him of her cousin, of her +living her entire life out there in the southern end of South +Africa, of her desire to be a nurse, he had pieced together an +effigy of the combined traits of a Hottentot and a vivandiere. This +girl answered to neither description. Her clothes and her manners +and her accent all had come, albeit with slow indirectness, from +London. Not only would she and her gowns pass muster in a crowd; but +furthermore she would end by being the focal point of a good share +of that crowd. Nevertheless, Weldon found it impossible to discover +her most distinctive point. Even while he sought it, he wondered to +himself whether this might not be another cousin of whom he had +never heard. The women doctors and nurses at home wore stout shoes +and had pockets let in at the seams of their frocks, useful, +doubtless, but with an unlovely tendency to yawn and show their +contents. This girl was a mere fluff of pale yellow organdie which +brought out the purplish lights in her ink-black hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you have the heart to disturb her?" he asked, reverting to the +subject of Syb's nap. +</P> + +<P> +"I was forced to. She was on all the cushions, and I needed one for +myself. She took it in good part, though. She told me she had been +disturbed, the night before, by the snoring of the parrot, two rooms +away. As a result, she left me feeling that the apology really ought +to come from me." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that the way of the race?" Weldon queried, as he set down his +empty cup. "If so, you make me tremble." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because, without in the least intending it, I have accumulated a +boy." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how. It apparently did itself. It was the day before +we went out to be fired at, and he said his name was Kruger Roberts, +and I fed him some empty jam tins." +</P> + +<P> +"A huge black boy with bristly hair?" she interpolated. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and a mouth so large that one wonders how his face can hold it +all." +</P> + +<P> +She sat up alertly, resting her folded arms on the edge of the +table. +</P> + +<P> +"This becomes interesting. Kruger Roberts is Syb's avowed and lawful +lover." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Mine also, as it appears. As I say, I fed him jam tins. There were +four of them, and they were very jammy. Then we became interested in +the Boers, and I forgot Kruger Roberts. When I came back, yesterday +morning, dead tired and my horse all in a mess, I found Kruger +Roberts calmly sitting on my extra blankets, cleaning my shoes with +Paddy's best dishcloth. Paddy was in a wild state of mutiny, and +told me that that chattering baboon had vowed he was Trooper +Weldon's boy. Since then, I have tried in vain to dislodge him; but +it is no use. The Nig is like a piece of satin, and it is all I can +do to keep my compressed-paper buttons from winking defiance at the +Boers on the northern edge of Sahara." +</P> + +<P> +Alice Mellen laughed with the air of one who understood the +situation. +</P> + +<P> +"You builded better than you knew, Mr. Weldon, and your jam tins +will be no house of cards. The Kaffirs are an unaccountable race of +beings, lazy and good-natured. Once let them love or hate, though, +and all their strength goes into the working out of the feeling. +Kruger Roberts obviously has a sweet tooth; the day may come when +your enemies may find it changed to a poisoned fang. Do you want the +advice of one who knows the country?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do," he assented heartily. +</P> + +<P> +"Then keep your Kruger Roberts," she said decisively. +</P> + +<P> +"But what shall I do with him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let him do for you." +</P> + +<P> +"As a valet? I've never been used to such luxury," he protested, +laughing. +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"Not only valet. He will be groom, cook, guide, interpreter and, +whether you wish it or not, your chum. Moreover, he will do it all +with the face of a clown and the manner of a tricksy monkey. As a +panacea for the blues, you will find him invaluable." +</P> + +<P> +There was a little pause. Then she added, with a complete change of +tone, "My cousin has spoken of you so often, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +"And of you," he returned. +</P> + +<P> +The directness of her answer pleased him. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we ought to start as friends, and not waste time over mere +acquaintance." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought there were no acquaintances out here," he answered +lightly. "In camp, our first question is: Friend, or foe?" +</P> + +<P> +"In the towns, we have every grade between. Often the same person +slides through all the grades in a single day. But you haven't +answered me." +</P> + +<P> +His eyes met her eyes frankly. +</P> + +<P> +"About the friendship? I thought that wasn't necessary." +</P> + +<P> +"Customary, however," she suggested, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"But, as I say, there are no customs here," he retorted. "At least, +I should have said so, this morning. Now I am not so sure." Then he +laughed. "I've bungled that horribly, Miss Mellen. What I meant was +that you have given me a very good time, this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"Prove it by coming again," she advised him. +</P> + +<P> +"If I may. I don't wish to wear out my welcome; but one hasn't so +many friends in South Africa." +</P> + +<P> +"What about Kruger Roberts?" she reminded him. +</P> + +<P> +"That gives me two." +</P> + +<P> +"And Captain Frazer?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's eyes lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Some day, perhaps. I would be willing to wait for that." +</P> + +<P> +Gravely her glance roved from the alert young Canadian at her side +to the older, more steadfast face across the table. Then she shook +her head. +</P> + +<P> +"You will not have to wait long, Mr. Weldon?" she said quietly. +"Captain Frazer spoke of you, a week ago. I have known him for +months; I know what, with him, stands for enthusiasm." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you might be a true prophet. I would honor you, even here in +your own garden. For the sake of Captain Frazer's regard, I would +give up most things," he replied, too low to be overheard by the +couple who were now chaffing each other above their cooling cups. +</P> + +<P> +Later on, he wondered a little how far the apparent inconsequence of +her next question was the result of chance. +</P> + +<P> +"What about Cooee?" she asked, in a voice as low as his own had +been. +</P> + +<P> +He hesitated. Then he looked up at her steadily. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Mellen, I am sure I don't know," he answered gravely. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER EIGHT +</H3> + +<P> +"Beastly shame that the Boers hadn't buried themselves instead of +the guns!" Carew remarked, as he wrestled with a tough thong of +bully beef which yielded to his jaws much as an India-rubber eraser +might have done. +</P> + +<P> +Without making any pretence of extracting nutriment from his own +ration, Weldon converted it into a missile and hurled it straight at +his companion. +</P> + +<P> +"There's this difference," he returned pithily; "a gun is a good +enough fellow to deserve Christian burial. Carew, do you ever yearn +for the fleshpots?" +</P> + +<P> +Without bringing his jaws to a halt, Carew shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, if they could be brought here; not otherwise. I like the game; +but I also like a little more oats mixed with my fodder. How long is +it since we had a square meal?" +</P> + +<P> +"How long since we halted in that pineapple grove, coming up from +Durban?" Carew retorted. "That made up for a good deal. You have no +cause to rebel, though. Between Paddy and Kruger Bobs, you stand in +for all the tidbits that are going." +</P> + +<P> +With a mock sigh, Weldon pointed backward over his shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"But unfortunately Kruger Bobs and The Nig are left behind in the +shadow of Naauwpoort's dreary heights. By the way, Carew, does it +ever strike you that these Boers make a lot more fuss over their +spelling than they do over their pronunciation? At home, we'd get as +good results out of dozens less letters." +</P> + +<P> +"They make as good use of their extra letters as they do of their +extra bullets," Carew returned tranquilly. "They've been sniping, +all the morning long, and they have only hit a man and a quarter +now." +</P> + +<P> +"Which was the quarter?" +</P> + +<P> +Turning, Carew displayed a jagged hole in his left sleeve. Weldon +laughed unfeelingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't you keep out of range, you old target? If there's a bullet +coming your way, it's bound to graze you." +</P> + +<P> +"This is only the fourth. Only one of those really meant business. +Oh, hang it! There they go again!" he burst out, as a distant line +of rocks crackled explosively and, a moment later, a random bullet +opened up the side of his shoe. +</P> + +<P> +With the swift change of occupation to which the past four months +had accustomed them, they were soon in the saddle and galloping off +across the rolling veldt. Before them, a pair of guns were pounding +away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes, and beyond, over the +crest of the next ridge, scores of thick-set, burly figures were +racing in search of shelter, with a fragment of the Scottish Horse +in hot pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +Neck and neck in the vanguard raced Weldon and Carew, with Captain +Frazer's huge khaki-colored horse hard on their heels. To Weldon, +the next hour was one of fierce excitement and pleasure. The shriek +of the shells, long since left behind, the flying figures before +them, the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she +stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt, the khaki-colored +desert, dotted with huge black rocks and shimmering with the +heat waves which rose above it towards the midday sun: his pulses +tingled and his head throbbed with the glorious rush of it all. +</P> + +<P> +And then the slouching figures were met by other slouching figures, +and reluctantly Weldon drew in his horse, as the halt was ordered. +Only madness would prolong the chase against such heavy odds. Mere +sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came +up. The action must wait, while the heliograph flashed its call for +help. Weldon grumbled low into Carew's ear, as the minutes dragged +themselves along, broken only by indeterminate volleys. +</P> + +<P> +"I have exactly five rounds left," he said at length. "I believe in +obedience, Carew; but, when I get this used up, by jingo, I'll pitch +into those fellows on my own account." +</P> + +<P> +"Keep cool," Carew advised him temperately. "You always were a +thriftless fellow; you must have been wasting your fire. Oh, I say, +what's the row in the rear?" +</P> + +<P> +"The column, most likely. It's time, too. Those fellows would be on +us in a minute. Ah ha!" And Weldon drew a quick breath of +admiration, as the guns came up at the gallop under the watchful eye +of the Imperial Yeomanry. +</P> + +<P> +Once in position on a rise to the left, quickly the guns unlimbered +and opened fire, while the sergeants gathered around the boxes of +spare cartridges on the ground beside the panting ammunition horse. +Then at last came the order for the advance, the order so eagerly +awaited by Weldon, maddened by his long exposure to the bullets of +his unseen foe. In extended order, the squadrons galloped forward +until their goal was a scant five hundred yards away, when of a +sudden a murderous fire broke out from the rocks in front of them, +emptying many a saddle and dropping many a horse. Under such +conditions, safety lay only in an unswerving charge. +</P> + +<P> +Close on their leaders' heels, the troopers spurred forward and, +revolver in right hand, rifle in left, they charged over the +remaining bit of ground and into the midst of the Boer position. +Briton and Boer met, face to face. Revolvers cracked; Boers dropped. +</P> + +<P> +Mausers crashed; Britons fell. And then, through and over, the +British charge had passed. +</P> + +<P> +Even then Weldon found no place for pause. From behind the Boer +position, a band of their reinforcements came galloping down upon +him. Caught between the two lines, the squadrons wheeled about, fell +again upon the broken enemy, dashed through them and, amid the +leaden hail, retired upon their own guns. And now once more the +gunners could reopen fire, and the shells dropped thick and fast. +The moment for a general advance had come. In open order, a thousand +men dashed forward and reached the ridge, only to see the retiring +foe galloping away in all directions across the open veldt. A halt +was ordered, to rest the winded mounts. Pickets were thrown out on +front and flank, while the British awaited their approaching convoy. +That night, the column rested upon the veldt at Vlaakfontein. +</P> + +<P> +After the rush of the day, its hope and its succeeding +disappointment, Weldon was long in falling asleep. Carew was out on +picket; Captain Frazer, coat off and sleeves rolled to his +shoulders, was busy among the wounded, and Weldon had cared to make +few other close friends in the squadron. Around him, he could hear +the murmurs of other sleepless ones; but he lay silent, his arms +under his head, his face turned upward to the shining perspective of +the stars. In similar perspective there ranged them-selves before +his mind the events of the past twelve weeks. +</P> + +<P> +Already the month at Piquetberg Road seemed a chapter out of another +volume. It had culminated in that languid afternoon spent around the +tea-table under the wattle tree in the garden, culminated there and +also ended there. With the unexpectedness that marks all things in a +time of war, the next noon found him steaming across the Cape Flats, +with Maitland in sight. Two days later, they were loaded on an empty +hospital ship returning to Durban. Piquetberg Road was child's play +now, for the front was almost in sight. The voyage had been beastly; +but after it had come the real beginning of things. Natal, in those +days of late February, had seemed deserving of its name, a true +Garden of Africa. The crossing was now a memory of heavy grades, of +verdant country, of ripened fruits. There had been the week's delay +at Pietermaritzburg where they had tasted a bit of civilization in +the intervals of completing their outfits; there had been the brief +stop at Ladysmith, already recovered from her hardships of the year +before, then the crossing the border into the Transvaal where the +verdure slowly vanished to give place to the dreary wastes of red-brown +veldt. At Johannesburg, he had manufactured an excuse for a +long letter to Ethel who— +</P> + +<P> +"Show a leg there!" +</P> + +<P> +The sergeant's voice at his ear called him back to the realities of +life. He sat up as alertly as if he had slept upon eider-down. +</P> + +<P> +By eight o'clock, Weldon was out on the veldt, two miles from camp. +Before him, a force of Yeomanry was guarding the two guns; around +him, a detail from his own squadron protected the flank on the +right. And, still farther to the right, a cloud of yellowish smoke +rose skyward across the yellower sunshine. Then, of a sudden, out +from the heart of the wall of smoke came a muffled thud and roar, +confused at first, growing strident and more detached until, +sweeping from the haze of smoke, five score Boer horsemen rode in a +bolt-like rush, fierce and uncheckable. Without swerving to right or +left, they charged straight towards the Yeomanry drawn up beside the +guns, drove them back and shot down the gunners almost to a man. An +instant later, the guns were whirled about and trained upon their +quondam owners. +</P> + +<P> +From over his breakfast, that morning, the General raised his head +to listen to the booming of the fifteen-pounders. No need to tell +him that heavy fighting had begun. His experienced ear had taught +him that magazine firing meant business. His hand went in search of +his field-glasses. +</P> + +<P> +"General, the enemy have captured the guns. The Major asks for +assistance to retake them." +</P> + +<P> +The General lowered his glasses. Covered with dust, and breathless, +Weldon was before him. +</P> + +<P> +"Mount every available man, and gallop to the scene of action!" +</P> + +<P> +Orderlies carried the command to the different regiments. Before the +mounted men could start, the infantry were half-way to the guns. But +already shells were falling into the camp, telling every man that +the guns were in the hands of the Boers. +</P> + +<P> +In the forefront of the remainder of his squadron, Weldon found +himself borne onward in the rush, straight from the camp to the +right flank of the guns. The broncho's swinging trot had long since +changed to a gallop, and her eyes were flashing with the wicked +light of her old, unbroken days, as she went tearing across the +sun-baked veldt, up and down over the rises and through the rare bits of +thicket at a pace which Weldon would have been powerless to check. +He had no mind to check it. The crisp air, full of ozone and warmed +by the sun, set his cheeks to tingling with its impact. A true +rider, he let his mood follow the temper of his horse and, like a +pair of wild things, they went bolting away far towards the head of +the squadrons. +</P> + +<P> +And always the firing of the guns grew nearer and faster and more +murderous. +</P> + +<P> +He took no note of passing moments, none of the miles he had ridden +during the past days. These counted for naught, while, with +photographic distinctness, the picture before him fixed itself +sharply in his mind: the dust-colored troops on the dusty veldt, the +brown-painted guns, the distant line of the enemy's fire and, far to +the eastward, the wall of smoke which was fast sweeping towards them +from the acres of burning veldt. +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Frazer, the General orders you to take up your position in +the kraal on the extreme right, and to hold it at any cost." +</P> + +<P> +From his place at the Captain's side, Weldon glanced at the orderly, +then, turning, looked across the veldt to the four gray walls +surrounding the clump of trees a mile away. His hand tightened on +the curb, and he straightened in the saddle, as the Captain led the +way into the purgatory beyond, an orderly purgatory, but crossed +with leaden lines of shot and shell. +</P> + +<P> +At such moments, the brain ceases to act coherently. When Weldon +came to himself, he was kneeling behind the old gray wall, revolver +in hand, firing full in the faces of the Boer horsemen, scarce +fifteen feet away. Carew, his right foot dangling, had been hustled +to the rear of the kraal where the gray broncho and her mates were +in comparative shelter. +</P> + +<P> +"Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +He looked up in a half-dazed fashion. The wall of smoke was already +shutting down about the retreating Boers. Beside him stood the +Captain, his yellow hair clinging to his dripping face, his blue +eyes, under their fringe of black lashes, glittering like polished +gems. Coated as he was with dust and sweat, his clothing torn and +spotted with the fray, he looked ten times more the gallant +gentleman, even, than when he had met Weldon in the heart-shaped +bit of lawn encircled by the Dents' driveway. Now he held out his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Splendidly done, old man! One doesn't forget such things." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER NINE +</H3> + +<P> +Captain Frazer had scarcely finished speaking, when the voice of the +General sounded in their ears. +</P> + +<P> +"A plucky attack and a plucky defeat, Captain Frazer. Kemp is a man +worth fighting. You are not wounded?" +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks to Trooper Weldon," the Captain told him, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +The General's keen glance included them both. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! And now can you spare me a trusty man? One who can ride? I +must have some despatches at Krugersdorp before midnight. I should +like some one from your squadron." +</P> + +<P> +The eyes of Captain Frazer and Weldon met. Again the General's keen +glance was on them both; then it concentrated itself upon the +younger man. +</P> + +<P> +"I am ready," he answered to its unspoken question. +</P> + +<P> +"You are sure you are fit? It is forty miles, and the rain will be +on us inside of an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"It makes no difference." +</P> + +<P> +As he spoke, Weldon felt himself surveyed from hat to shoelace. +</P> + +<P> +"Very well. Get yourself fed, and come to my tent in an hour. It +will be better to wait until dusk before starting, for these hills +are infested with Boers. Do you know the country?" +</P> + +<P> +"Partly. I can learn the rest." +</P> + +<P> +"You need a remount." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon stroked the little gray broncho. +</P> + +<P> +"If I had my own horse. Otherwise, I prefer this. I can trust her, +even if she is tired." +</P> + +<P> +Again the glance swept him over, beginning at the boyish face, +resolute and eager beneath its streaks of red-brown dust. Then, as +Weldon saluted, the General turned and rode away, with the Captain +at his side. +</P> + +<P> +"You've the making of a man there, Captain Frazer," was his sole +comment. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon, meanwhile, was allowing the little gray broncho to pick her +own dainty way out of the shambles about her feet. Then, once free +from the litter of men and horses, he turned her head to the spot +where, he had been told, his squadron were gathering together their +diminished forces. As he rode slowly onward, he was surprised to see +how low the sun had dropped. The fighting must have lasted longer +than he had thought. It had been hot and heavy; but at least he had +not funked it. For so much he could be thankful. In so far as he +could recall any of his emotions as he had dashed into range of the +pitiless firing, they had been summed up in a dull rage against the +enemy, mingled with a vague hope that no harm should come to the +plucky little mount. Just one instant's pause he could remember. +That was when he had put forth all his strength to check her pace +until he could readjust a strap that was plainly galling her. And +afterwards? Not even the thoroughbred Nig could have played her part +in the fight with more steady gallantry. Stooping, he eased the bit +and patted the firm gray neck where the mane swept upward for its +arching fall. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss?" +</P> + +<P> +He straightened in his saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs! By all special providences, where did you come from?" +</P> + +<P> +"Naauwpoort. Kruger Bobs come bring Nig to Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs, you're a genius." +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs vanished behind his smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya, Boss," he replied then. "Boss all right?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Dutchmans no killed Boss?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +Doubtfully Kruger Bobs shook his sable bristles. He had heard the +firing, such firing as he had never dreamed of until then, and it +seemed to him impossible that any man could come unscathed out of +the heart of it. Of Weldon's being in the very heart of it, no doubt +had once stained the loyal whiteness of his soul. To assure himself +of Weldon's safety, he ambled around the gray broncho in a clumsy +circle. The gray broncho showed her appreciation of the attention by +nipping viciously at the flank of his horse. By Weldon's left side, +Kruger Bobs halted and pointed an accusing forefinger at his knee. +</P> + +<P> +"Dutchmans hurt Boss," he said anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dere." In spite of his effort for sternness, the voice of Kruger +Bobs quavered with anxiety. +</P> + +<P> +Bending over, Weldon glanced down at the dark red stain on the coil +of khaki serge. Then, all at once, he remembered the sudden stinging +of his leg, just before he had started the gray broncho on her last +mad rush across the lead-swept plain. In the excitement that +followed, the matter had entirely passed out of his mind. Even now +that his attention was called to it, he was conscious of no physical +discomfort. +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs go for doctor?" the boy was urging. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed reassuringly. +</P> + +<P> +"It's nothing, Kruger Bobs. I've no time to fool with doctors now." +</P> + +<P> +"What Boss do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Feed Piggie, eat something, look up Mr. Carew and then get to the +General's tent, inside an hour." +</P> + +<P> +"What for de big boss soldier?" +</P> + +<P> +"He wants me." +</P> + +<P> +"Ya?" Kruger Bobs demanded uneasily. +</P> + +<P> +"To ride a despatch." +</P> + +<P> +"Despatch!" Kruger Bobs exploded in hot wrath. "Kruger Bobs go +despatch; Boss go bed." "Can't do it, Kruger Bobs. This is war, and +I've given my word to the General. It was an order, and I had to do +it." Backing his horse off for a step or two, Kruger Bobs sat +looking at his master and shaking his head mournfully. Then he +straightened in the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss go; Kruger Bobs go, too," he said, with steady decision. +</P> + +<P> +Less than an hour later, outside the General's tent Kruger Bobs sat +astride The Nig, with the rein of the gray broncho in his hand. The +clouds, since noon banked low in the eastern horizon, had swept up +across the sky, and already the rain was pattering drearily over the +hunched-up shoulders of Kruger Bobs. Inside the tent, the colloquy +was brief. Twice Weldon repeated over the substance of his +despatches and his instructions regarding their destination. The +despatches were slipped between the layers of his shoe-sole, the cut +stitches were replaced, and Weldon rose to his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"My nigger has come from Naauwpoort, bringing me a fresh mount," he +said then. "May I take him with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"What is he?" +</P> + +<P> +"A Kaffir." +</P> + +<P> +"From where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Piquetberg Road." +</P> + +<P> +"Can you trust him?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's eyes met the eyes of the General steadily. "As I would +trust myself," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +Five minutes later, Weldon passed out of the tent door. At his +quarters, he dismounted and went in search of a blanket. Muffled in +the thick folds, the horses' feet would make no sound on the +hard-baked earth. Kruger Bobs, meanwhile, went out to reconnoitre in +order to discover a possible gap in the line of Boer pickets. +</P> + +<P> +The pickets once passed, Weldon mounted once more and, with Kruger +Bobs following close behind, rode carefully away into the inky, +drizzling night. For the first hour, he rode steadily and with +comparative comfort. The excitement of the battle was still in his +blood, its noises ringing in his head, its sights dancing like +will-o'-the-wisps before his eyes. Later, the inevitable reaction would +follow, and the inevitable weariness. Now, refreshed by their +supper, both he and the broncho had come to their second wind, and +they faced the storm pluckily and with unbowed heads. Beside him, +The Nig, fresh and fit as a horse could be, galloped onward steadily +under the weight of Kruger Bobs. It had been at Weldon's own command +that Kruger Bobs had abandoned his raw-boned steed and placed +himself astride the sacred body of the thoroughbred Nig. On such a +night and after such a battle, a horse abandoned was a horse forever +lost. Neither The Nig nor Piggie could be left to any chance +ownership, but neither could Piggie, fresh from a two-day fight, be +left to the mercies of an inexperienced rider. Three inches shorter +than his master, Kruger Bobs weighed fifty pounds the more, and he +rode with the resilient lightness of a feather bed. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's hour of rest had been divided in strict ratio between +himself, his friend and his horse. For fully half that period, he +and Kruger Bobs had rubbed the sturdy gray legs and anointed the +scratched neck with supplies taken from the portable veterinary +hospital always to be found in the recesses of the Kaffirs scanty +garments. Then, snatching a hasty meal, with the last of it still in +his hands, Weldon strode away to look for Carew. He found him, +bandaged but jovial, a shattered bone in his foot and his pipe in +his shut teeth. Fortunately the pain bore no relation to the +seriousness of the case, and Weldon left him to his pipe, cheered by +the doctor's assurance that two or three weeks would bring him back +into fighting trim. Carew's own disrespectful comments on the +injured foot were still in his ears, as he entered the tent of the +General. +</P> + +<P> +By degrees, the night grew dark and darker. Riding eastward with +their backs to the southerly storm, nevertheless now and again the +wind swirled about fiercely, to send the lashing rain against their +faces. Under their feet, the dusty veldt turned to mire, from mire +to a pasty glue, and from glue to the consistency of cream. Bottom +there was none; the bottomlessness of it only became more apparent +when one or other of the horses stumbled into the hole of an +ant-bear. Twice the gray broncho was on her knees; once The Nig came +down so sharply that Kruger Bobs rolled forward out of his saddle, +to land on his back, nose to nose with his astonished mount. Worst +of all, the fever of the fight was dying out from Weldon's veins. +His pulses were slowing down, and the ceaseless jar of the gray +broncho's gallop waked his wounded leg to a pain which fast became +intolerable. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs edged closer to his side. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss sick?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +"Not altogether content, Kruger Bobs." +</P> + +<P> +"Leg?" the boy questioned anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; that—and some other things." +</P> + +<P> +"Me help Boss?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you. I'd better let the mess alone." +</P> + +<P> +"Boss ride Nig?" Kruger Bobs suggested, in the hushed tone in which +all their talk had been carried on. +</P> + +<P> +"It is better not to change." +</P> + +<P> +The silence broadened, broken only by the splashing of eight hoofs +in the ever-deepening mire, and by the sighing squeak of wet strap +rubbing on wet strap. Then Kruger Bobs spoke again. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy send," he said, as he poked a soft parcel into Weldon's +dangling hand. "He say 'Give it to little Canuck.'" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon felt and tasted his way into the parcel. It was large, and +filled with savory bits which Paddy must have gleaned here and there +from the general mess, robbing freely from many a greater man, all +for the sake of the "little Canuck." +</P> + +<P> +It was no time for the discipline which bids a servant eat of the +crumbs from his master's table. For the hour, Kruger Bobs and he +were friends, bound upon one and the same errand. With impartial +hand, Weldon tore the paper across and divided its contents. He only +regretted that convention had forbidden him the trick of smacking +his lips in sign of relish. It would have been good to have the +ability of Kruger Bobs to give audible token of his appreciation of +Paddy's bounty. +</P> + +<P> +Somewhat refreshed, he straightened in his saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Now be careful, Kruger Bobs. There are Boers in these hills," he +warned his companion; "and it would never do for us to be sniped." +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs came close to his side. +</P> + +<P> +"Dutchmans kill Kruger Bobs, no matter; kill Boss, no take despatch. +Boss say to Kruger Bobs where de despatch. Kruger Bobs take him to +Krugersdorp, if Boss die." +</P> + +<P> +And Weldon shivered a little, as the silence dropped again. +</P> + +<P> +The ridges were steeper now, and came in more swift succession, as +the horsemen plodded wearily along the southern slope of the Rand. +Piggie was breathing heavily; and Weldon, clinging to his saddle +with the purely mechanical grip of the exhausted rider, halted again +and again to rest the plucky little animal whose best was always his +for the asking. Of his own condition he took no heed. It was all in +the game. He would play the game out as long as he could; but his +last move should be, as his first had been, strictly according to +rule. Meanwhile, for two facts he was at a loss to account. Dawning +was still hours distant. Nevertheless, the darkness before him was +blotted and blurred with alternating waves of blue and gray. The +veldt was empty; yet, above the roar of the rain around him, an odd +purring sound was in his ears. Then everything lost itself in his +determination not to allow the saddle to slip from between his tired +knees. +</P> + +<P> +He roused himself at the challenging voice of a picket. +</P> + +<P> +"Despatches for General Kekewich," he answered, in a voice which +seemed to his own ears to have come from miles away. +</P> + +<P> +"Advance and give the countersign." +</P> + +<P> +Irritably he gathered himself together. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't, I tell you. I don't know your blasted countersign. I've +despatches from Dixon to General Kekewich. Take me to him at once." +</P> + +<P> +The colloquy lasted for moments, in a drawn battle of determination. +Its stimulus had waked Weldon from his lethargy; it had also waked +again that fierce and throbbing pain below his knee. He left the +sentry in no doubt, either of the truth of his statement, or of his +mood. Then, with Kruger Bobs at his side, he plodded forward towards +the lights of the town, while he braced himself for a final effort. +</P> + +<P> +Fifteen minutes later, he reached the second line of pickets. The +gray broncho's head drooped pitifully, as Weldon sat waiting for the +inevitable challenge. It came at last; and Weldon's answering voice +was slow with a weakness which was not all feigned. +</P> + +<P> +"Despatches from Dixon's column. Take me to the Commandant, please." +</P> + +<P> +He was dimly aware of a hand on his bridle, dimly conscious that +Piggie was being led forward for a seemingly endless distance. As +they halted in front of a gray stone building, Weldon dimly heard +the tingling of many bells within, then the hurried opening of a +window, and a voice demanding the cause of the disturbance below. He +felt himself going fast; but, gripping his will with all his might, +he pulled himself together long enough to answer,— +</P> + +<P> +"Despatches for General Kekewich between the soles of my left boot." +</P> + +<P> +Then he pitched forward on his broncho's neck. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TEN +</H3> + +<P> +"Twelve inches make one foot, six feet make one man, sixty men make +one troop, four troops make one squadron," the monotonous voice ran +on. Then it came to an unexpected finale. "And three squadrons make +the Boer army run." +</P> + +<P> +The man in the next bed giggled. His wound was in his shoulder, and +it had left his sense of humor unimpaired. As a rule, the fighting +records of the wounded never came inside that long, bed-bordered +room; but there were few within it now who were ignorant of the +plucky ride made by the lean, boyish-looking Canadian trooper. A +part of the story had come by way of the doctor in charge of the +ambulance train which had brought him from Krugersdorp to +Johannesburg, a part of it had come from the trooper's own lips, and +that was the most tragic part of it all. +</P> + +<P> +Below, in the courtyard of the hospital, Kruger Bobs squatted on his +heels in the sun and waited. Now and then, he vanished to look after +the creature comforts of The Nig and the little gray broncho; now +and then he shuffled forward to demand news from some passer-by +whose sleeve was banded with the Red-Cross badge. Then he shuffled +back to his former post and sat himself down on his heels once more. +Kruger Bobs possessed the racial traits which make it an easy matter +to sit and wait for news. He was also an optimist. Nevertheless, his +face now was overcast and rarely did it vanish behind the spreading +limits of his smile. +</P> + +<P> +For four days, Weldon lay prostrate and babbled of all things, past, +present and to come. Three names dotted his babblings. One was that +of his mother, one of his captain, and the third that of Ethel Dent. +With all three of them, he appeared to be upon the best of terms. +Finally, on the fifth day, he suddenly waked to the fact that a +woman was bending above him, to wipe his face with a damp sponge. +</P> + +<P> +He was too weak to rise. Nevertheless, he straightened himself into +a rigid line, and addressed her with dignity. +</P> + +<P> +"I beg your pardon. Please don't wash my face for me," he said, in +grave displeasure. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled down at him, with the air of a mother smiling at a +fretful child. The smile irritated him. +</P> + +<P> +"Doesn't it refresh you?" she asked quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he answered, with flat, ungracious, mendacity. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry. You have been sleeping heavily, and—" +</P> + +<P> +He felt his mind slipping out of his own grasp, and he strove to +hold it in his keeping. +</P> + +<P> +"No matter now," he interrupted hastily. "Please get me—" +</P> + +<P> +She waited in silence. Then she asked encouragingly,— +</P> + +<P> +"What shall I get you?" +</P> + +<P> +The mind was almost gone; but still he held fast to the edge of it, +as he murmured,— +</P> + +<P> +"Some bully beef." +</P> + +<P> +The nurse turned away. Her lips were smiling; but her eyes clouded, +as the babbling began once more. +</P> + +<P> +Twenty-four hours later, she was greeted by a white-faced, +clear-headed trooper. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-morning, nurse," he said coolly. "You see I am better." +</P> + +<P> +"Much better, Mr. Weldon," she assented cordially. He looked +puzzled. "I thought we fellows in hospital had no names, nothing but +numbers," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +"It depends. When one meets an old friend, the number isn't quite +the right name for him." +</P> + +<P> +Turning slightly, he stared up at her with the impassive curiosity +of a man just coming back from The Unknown. Then he shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid—" he began slowly. +</P> + +<P> +With a quick gesture, she took off her crisp white cap, uncovering a +heavy pile of ink-black hair. "There!" she said, with a smile. "Does +that make me look more natural, Mr. Weldon? I am Alice Mellen, Cooee +Dent's cousin." +</P> + +<P> +Instantly he put out his hand, sunburned still, but curiously thin. +The smile on his lips was the boyish, frank smile which Alice had +seen and liked, that afternoon in the garden at home. +</P> + +<P> +"What good angel brings you here?" he asked eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +"No angel; merely the lady who rules over the household of Mars. I +am glad to find you again, even if the Johannesburg hospital isn't a +good place for a man. But you mustn't talk now. Later, we can make +up for lost time." +</P> + +<P> +Impetuously his fingers shut on a fold of her apron. Then his native +instincts and his years of training asserted themselves, and he let +go once more. Nevertheless, his eyes were appealing. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't go." +</P> + +<P> +"But I must," she answered, her hands busy with her cap. +</P> + +<P> +Her tone showed that, like himself, she too had learned the meaning +of an order. He yielded to its quiet firmness. +</P> + +<P> +"If you must. But, before you go, tell me this: have I been off my +head?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded in assent. +</P> + +<P> +He frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," he said briefly. "Please answer me honestly. Have I mumbled +things and made a blasted fool of myself?" +</P> + +<P> +It was still two days before he was allowed to talk to his own +satisfaction. Then, one afternoon in her rest hour, Alice Mellen let +him have his way and, seated by his cot, she answered tersely to a +raking fire of terse questions. +</P> + +<P> +"How long have I been here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just a week." +</P> + +<P> +"How did I get here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hospital train from Krugersdorp." +</P> + +<P> +"What for?" +</P> + +<P> +"You had a touch of fever. We could treat you better here." Her +replies were man-like in their brevity. +</P> + +<P> +"Fever? I thought it was a Mauser bullet." +</P> + +<P> +"It was. Your leg was not so bad; but the long ride and the exposure +to the storm—" +</P> + +<P> +He interrupted her. +</P> + +<P> +"What do you know about my ride?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Her answer showed that the woman was not lost in the nurse. +</P> + +<P> +"Everybody knows of your ride. Even in these days of plucky deeds, +we are proud of you." +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head, though the color came into his cheeks, brown +beneath their pallor. +</P> + +<P> +"It was nothing. I did my duty." +</P> + +<P> +"So Kruger Bobs has informed us." +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs? Is he here?" +</P> + +<P> +This time, she laughed outright. +</P> + +<P> +"I should say he was. For a week, he has been sitting exactly in the +path of the doctors, waiting for news. Twice he has been ordered +off; but he merely hitches over to the other end of the steps and +refuses to budge farther. We discovered him, the first night you +were here, by having the bead surgeon fall headlong over him, as he +went down the steps. Kruger Bobs doesn't show up well, on a dark +night." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon clasped his hands at the back of his head. +</P> + +<P> +"If I thought you were using American slang, Miss Mellen, I should +contradict you," he answered, with a touch of his old humor. "I can +remember at least one dark night when Kruger Bobs made an excellent +showing." +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"We have bad a few Americans here before, Mr. Weldon. I think I +understand." +</P> + +<P> +"How long have you been here?" he asked, after a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Ten weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"And you like it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why else should I be here?" +</P> + +<P> +"From a sense of duty." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that what brought you out?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. My coming was inevitable. It seemed a part of me that I +couldn't help." +</P> + +<P> +"But you wished to come?" she queried. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. But that was only a Dart of it. I have wished to do +things before, and have done them. This was quite different. It all +seemed a part of Fate, and I walked through it, like a puppet with +somebody else's hand pulling the strings." He paused and shook his +head. "It is no use. I can't make you understand it. I acted freely +and did just what I chose; but yet, all the time, I felt as if it +had all been arranged for me, whole generations ago." +</P> + +<P> +Thoughtfully she bent forward, straightened the coverings above his +wounded leg; then sat up again. Then she shook her head a little +regretfully. +</P> + +<P> +"No," she said. "I am afraid I don't understand. Perhaps it is +because I am selfish; but I usually feel as if I made my plans, +regardless of Fate." +</P> + +<P> +"What about our meeting here?" he asked quizzically. +</P> + +<P> +She answered in the same tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Wait until we see what comes out of it. Fate, if one believes in +such a thing, only works in an endless chain." +</P> + +<P> +"And the broken links?" +</P> + +<P> +"According to your notion, there should be none," she retorted. +"Fate ought to be a better workman than that." +</P> + +<P> +"Than what?" +</P> + +<P> +"Than spoiling her work as she goes along. If there's any chain at +all, it should be endless and durable. But a man with a Mauser hole +in his leg and a fever in his head has no business to be talking of +Fate. Let's talk about Ethel, instead." +</P> + +<P> +He settled himself back comfortably. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps it amounts to the same thing, in the long run." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. I don't see how, though. Anyway, Ethel wouldn't be pleased +with the notion. She is absolutely independent, and generally +arranges things according to her own sweet will." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is she now?" +</P> + +<P> +"In Cape Town," Alice answered, quite unaware of her own lack of +truth. +</P> + +<P> +"And well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gloriously. In fact, as far as I can learn, Cooee always is well. +Just now she is having a wonderfully gay time. Since Lord Roberts +went back to England, Cape Town has been full of people, resting +there before sailing for home." +</P> + +<P> +"Resting?" +</P> + +<P> +"Haven't they earned the right?" she questioned, in swift challenge +to the quiet scorn in his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Even if the battles are over, the fighting isn't," he answered +tersely. "The glory doesn't lie entirely in the pulverizing the Boer +army; there's a little left for the men who are sweeping up the +pieces." +</P> + +<P> +Her trained eye saw the rising color in his face. Swiftly she +changed the subject. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory for all, enough and to spare," she replied. "But, as I say, +Cape Town is crowded with officers, lying up for repairs, and Ethel +is queen bee among them. It's not only for herself; it is what you +would call Fate. She happens to be the only girl of her set who is +just out from London; she had met a good many of them there, and now +she is holding a veritable salon. She even has one sacred teacup, +set up on a high shelf ever since the day that Baden-Powell used +it." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Dent is a hero-worshipper," he commented. +</P> + +<P> +"So are we all, in certain directions. Moreover, most women like +their heroes to have a little personality. One can't make one's +admiration stick to a blank wall of impersonal perfection." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's mind moved swiftly backwards to two blue, black-fringed +eyes glowing out from a dust-streaked face. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he assented; "but neither can one ever really be chums with +his hero. Or, even if he can, he doesn't care to try the +experiment." +</P> + +<P> +Alice glanced at her watch, rose, then lingered. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not so sure of that," she replied thoughtfully. "I want the +pedestal of my hero to be a low one; and Cooee declares that she +wishes no pedestal at all. If her hero is worthy of the name, he +must bear inspection even from above. The worst flaw of all might +lurk in the very crown of his head." +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later, she came back again. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Weldon, do you feel strong enough to see Kruger Bobs for +exactly five minutes?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +The gray eyes lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"For ten times five," he answered eagerly. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs shuffled in upon the heels of an orderly. Under his +bristly hair, his face was a study of mingled emotions which +culminated in his mouth. A grin of pure happiness had drawn up the +upper lip; at sight of his prostrate master, the lower one was +rolling outward in a sudden wave of pure pity. Beside the cot, he +halted and stood looking down at Weldon with eyes which, for the +moment, transformed his lazy, jolly, simian face into a species of +nobility. Lying back on his pillow, Weldon waited for him to speak, +waited with an odd, restless beating of the heart for which he was +wholly at a loss to account. +</P> + +<P> +The pause between them lengthened. At last Kruger Bobs drew his +mangy brown felt hat across his eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"I's here, Boss," he said simply. +</P> + +<P> +However, it was enough. +</P> + +<P> +The next morning found Weldon sitting up. A clean-cut hole through +the flesh of a man who has lived a clean-cut life is swift in +healing. Now that his fever had left him, his superb vitality was +asserting itself once more, and he rallied quickly. Meanwhile, it +was good to be able to sit up and eat his breakfast like a civilized +being. Weldon had all the detestation of the average healthy being +for invalid ways. Moreover, he longed to be up and doing. With his +growing strength, the orderly, noiseless routine of the hospital +came upon his nerves. One of the nurses always walked on the points +of her toes; and he was conscious of a wild longing to throw a +pillow at her, as she went diddling to and fro past him, a dozen +times a day. The doctor, a man of iron nerve and velvet hand, was a +daily delight to him. And there was always Alice, frank, friendly +and altogether enjoyable. During the past three days, their liking +had grown apace. Absolutely feminine, yet with the healthy +impersonality of a growing boy, Alice Mellen was a born comrade, and +Weldon enjoyed her just as, in her place, he would have enjoyed +Carew. +</P> + +<P> +She came down the ward, that morning, and paused beside his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"You look like your old self at last," she said, as she held out her +hand in congratulation. +</P> + +<P> +"I might echo your words," he answered, while he looked up into her +eyes, shining with merriment and with something that yet seemed to +him closely akin to annoyance. "Granted the apron, you might be +pouring tea at home." +</P> + +<P> +"Not tea; but malted milk, in these latter days," she said, +laughing. "But I am about to retire from your case. May I introduce +your new nurse, Mr. Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +His reluctant assent was changed to eager greeting. Light, swift +steps came down the room; a tall figure stopped at his side in the +full glare of a sunshiny window which all at once seemed focussing +its light upon waving strands and heaped-up coils of vivid yellow +hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Cooee!" Then, too late, he bethought himself of his manners and +tried to bite the word off short. +</P> + +<P> +Linking her arm in that of her cousin, the girl stood looking down +at him with merry, mocking blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Invalids are supposed to have privileges denied to well men," she +answered demurely. "It might perhaps be Cooee here, to-day; but it +will have to be Miss Dent, to-morrow, when you are back in the field +again. After all, it is hardly worth while to make the change, +Trooper Weldon." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER ELEVEN +</H3> + +<P> +Upon one side, at least, the meeting between the two cousins on the +previous night had been wholly unexpected. +</P> + +<P> +Late that afternoon, an ambulance train had come in, loaded with men +from the over-crowded field hospital at Krugersdorp, and for hours +Alice had been in ceaseless attendance upon the surgeon in charge. +Little by little, the girl had found her nerves steadying down to +the task in hand; nevertheless, the past ten weeks, in return for +the increase of her poise, had taken something from her vitality. +Quickness of eye, firmness of hand, evenness of temper: all these +may be gifts of the gods. Their use is a purely human function, and +proportionately exhausting. The girl's one salvation lay in the fact +that her quick sympathy with her patients was for the most part +impersonal. Up to this time, Weldon had been her only patient whom +she had known outside the routine duties of her hospital life. In a +sense, it had been a relief to meet some one whom she knew to be of +her own world; in a sense, the case had worn upon her acutely. She +could watch with a greater degree of stolidity the sufferings of +other men. +</P> + +<P> +Among her new charges, that day, only one had made any distinct +impression upon her overworked brain. That was a jovial young +fellow, handsome as Phoebus Apollo, in spite of a slashing scar +across one cheek. He had answered to her questions regarding his +wounded foot with an accent so like that of Weldon that +involuntarily she lingered beside him to add a word of cheery +consolation. His was her final case, that night. As she wearily +turned towards her own room, she made no effort to analyze her +exhaustion. +</P> + +<P> +She found Ethel, still in her hat and jacket, sitting on the edge of +her own narrow cot. +</P> + +<P> +"Cooee Dent!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, dear." The girl's tone was nonchalant, even while the telltale +color came into her cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +"What are you doing here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Visiting you, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"Visiting me! But, Cooee, I really don't know where I can put you." +</P> + +<P> +With perfect composure, Ethel passed her hand over the surface of +the cot. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I think this nutmeg-grater will carry two. Still, Alice, I must +say that your hospitality isn't exactly exuberant." +</P> + +<P> +Alice dropped into a chair and wearily pushed her hair still farther +back from her forehead. +</P> + +<P> +"But, Cooee—" +</P> + +<P> +"Aren't you glad to see me?" Ethel demanded. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly. You are always a dear; but—I wish I had known you were +coming." +</P> + +<P> +Ethel raised her brows, and a slight edge came into her voice. +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't want me, Alice, I can go home in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +Dimly aware that her cousin was fencing with an invisible adversary, +nevertheless Alice Mellen was too tired, that night, to range +herself upon the side of that adversary. As far as she was +concerned, Ethel had dropped upon her like a bolt from the blue. She +was too busy, too absorbed in her patients to give more than a +passing thought to even her most intimate cousin. And besides, +Weldon—She pulled herself together sharply. +</P> + +<P> +"Of course I want you, Cooee dear. It is only a bit sudden, and I am +trying to think what to do with you." +</P> + +<P> +Now and then Ethel turned wayward. This was one of the times. +</P> + +<P> +"If you didn't know what to do with me, Alice, then why did you ask +me to come?" +</P> + +<P> +"But I didn't," Alice responded, too astonished to modify her denial +into a polite form of fibbing. +</P> + +<P> +Ethers tone was gently superior. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes; you did." +</P> + +<P> +"When?" +</P> + +<P> +"When you were leaving home. You said then that I must be sure to +come up to spend a week with you, early in the winter." Then her +accent changed. "You poor tired child!" she said, as she rose and +crossed to her cousin's side. "This work is too hard for you; you +look as if you had been fighting the Boers themselves, instead of +merely enteric and bullet holes. I think it is just as well that I +am here to look out for you, for a few days." +</P> + +<P> +Alice lifted her hand to the hand that lay against her cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"I am glad to see you, Cooee dear. I am only so surprised that it +makes me slow to tell you so. If you can sleep here, to-night, I can +find a better place for you in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"This will do," Ethel answered, while she slowly drew the pins from +her hat. "It is neat, even if it isn't spacious. Really, Alice, I +should have let you know; but it was only just as I was starting +that I found I could come at all. Father is at home, and mother is +unusually well, and I thought I would best make the most of the +opportunity." +</P> + +<P> +Crossing the room to the table, she stood with her back to her +cousin, while she smoothed the feathers in her hat. Then, without +turning, she asked abruptly,— +</P> + +<P> +"How is Mr. Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Better." +</P> + +<P> +"Out of all danger?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Not that he has been in much danger, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I thought—" +</P> + +<P> +Then silence fell. +</P> + +<P> +Alice, meanwhile, was busy with a swift calculation. Five days, in +these troubled times, for a letter to go from Johannesburg to Cape +Town; five days since Ethel could have left Cape Town. And her one +letter to Ethel since Weldon's arrival had been posted just three +days before. +</P> + +<P> +"How did you know Mr. Weldon was here?" she asked sharply. +</P> + +<P> +Ethel's back was still turned towards her. Nevertheless, she could +see the scarlet tide mounting to the ears and to the roots of the +vivid gold hair. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, your letter, Alice," Ethel answered composedly. +</P> + +<P> +Alice's laugh was sharp and edged with malice. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, dear. My letter, telling you of his being here, will be +delivered at your house to-morrow morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, then I must have mixed things up," Ethel replied, as she turned +to face her cousin. "Probably Captain Frazer told me." +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Frazer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, he came down to Cape Town, just before I left there. I +remember now, he was the one who told me. He was near Mr. Weldon at +Vlaakfontein; he knew all about his awful ride into Krugersdorp, and +I believe he did say he was to be brought here." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment more, the two pairs of eyes, the blue and the black, +met in steady warfare, neither one yielding in the least, neither +one quite aware how much she was betraying to the other. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, what of it?" Ethel demanded tempestuously then. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, only—are you sure you were wise to come?" +</P> + +<P> +The blue eyes blazed. +</P> + +<P> +"And what do you mean by that, Alice? You asked me to visit you +here, to see your work among your patients. I have come. If I came +at all, it had to be now. I can't always leave home for a week at a +time. And I can't help it, can I, if Mr. Weldon happens to be one of +your patients?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; you can't," Alice admitted slowly. "It only remains to be seen +whether you would care to help it, if you could." +</P> + +<P> +Again Ethel crossed the room. This time, she dropped down at her +cousin's side. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let us argue about it and get cross at each other, dear. If I +have made a mistake in coming now, I am sorry. But I am here. Let me +stay a few days; I may be able to help you a little. Anyway, I +promise not to be a trouble to you. It is so long since I have seen +you, Alice. And—" Again the silence dropped. +</P> + +<P> +Alice roused herself from the reverie which was creeping over her. +She was glad to see Ethel, unfeignedly glad. The bright, animated +presence of her cousin, during the next few days, could not fail to +be a tonic. And, as Ethel had said, she herself had been the one to +suggest the first idea of the winter visit. Chance and Captain +Frazer had decreed that it should take place now, when Alice's hands +were immoderately full of work. But then, so much the better. Ethel +could make herself invaluable among the convalescents. She herself +had not put on her Red-Cross badge for the sake of taking her rest +hour at the bedside of Trooper Harvard Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +Half undressed, Ethel paused, hair brush in hand. "You can't imagine +how tired I am, Alice. It is a terrible journey up here nowadays. I +was in terror of a train-wreck at any moment," she said drowsily. +"Don't let me sleep too long in the morning, because," she pulled +open her eyes long enough to dart a mocking glance over her shoulder +at her cousin; "because you know, right after breakfast, you are +going to let me begin to help you take care of some of your people." +</P> + +<P> +From behind her own sheltering veil of ink-black hair, Alice +laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Cooee, you are a dear; but you're rather a trial," she said slowly. +"However, now that you are here, I think I shall ask the P. M. O. to +set you to work to watch over the needs of Mr. Weldon. He won't be +here much longer; but, while he stays, I shall consider him your +patient." Then, brushing aside the veil, she bent forward and +touched her lips to her cousin's cheek. +</P> + +<P> +"Might I ask what brought you up here, Miss Dent?" Weldon asked, the +next day. +</P> + +<P> +Beside him sat Ethel, her hands demurely clasped in the lap of her +broad white apron. +</P> + +<P> +"My cousin's invitation," she replied. +</P> + +<P> +"Then Miss Mellen knew you were coming?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. She asked me to come, early in the winter." +</P> + +<P> +"Strange she said nothing about it! We were talking about you, only +yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"She didn't know, even then, that I was so imminent," Ethel +answered. "I took her quite by surprise, at the last." +</P> + +<P> +"A surprise all around, then," he said, with a boyish laugh. "I was +astonished to find Miss Mellen here, and you must have been equally +astonished to find me. If only Captain Frazer would appear, our old +quartette would be complete." +</P> + +<P> +"I am afraid we must get on without him," she said lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Unfortunately, yes. I wonder where he is." +</P> + +<P> +"In Cape Town," she replied unexpectedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Really? What is he doing there?" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't expect me to tell. It has something to do with a staff; but +whether he carries it, or becudgels recruits with it, I have no idea +at all." +</P> + +<P> +"He hasn't left the Scottish Horse?" +</P> + +<P> +"In fact; but not in name. Your regiment is still in the Transvaal; +but he keeps a sort of vicarious connection with it. Please don't +expect me to grasp military details, Mr. Weldon. I merely repeat the +facts, parrot fashion; you must interpret them to suit yourself." +</P> + +<P> +He laughed again. Already, in that one morning, he appeared to have +taken a long stride towards the regaining of his old self. +</P> + +<P> +"You are a perfect gazette, Miss Dent, the first bit of news that +has crept inside this place. Where did you get all your +information?" +</P> + +<P> +"From Captain Frazer." Her rising color belied her unconcerned tone. +</P> + +<P> +"You have seen him, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. He is usually very good about calling, whenever he comes to +Cape Town." +</P> + +<P> +"And is he well?" +</P> + +<P> +"Absolutely. Also quite enthusiastic over his troopers and the work +they did at Vlaakfontein." +</P> + +<P> +"Were—many—" +</P> + +<P> +She understood. +</P> + +<P> +"Not very many; but several were wounded. Worst of all, one or two +of the wounded ones were shot by the Boers. Mr. Carew told me that +he left a dozen of your men in the hospital at Krugersdorp." +</P> + +<P> +"Carew? Have you seen him, too, Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +"Didn't you know he was here?" +</P> + +<P> +He stared at her in blank amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"Here in Johannesburg?" +</P> + +<P> +"Here in this hospital." +</P> + +<P> +"In what shape?" +</P> + +<P> +"Hilarious in his mind, and with a foot that is coming out right in +course of time. Didn't Alice tell you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +"Strange. She took me to see him, this morning, on my way here, +because he was such a promising patient. She was quite surprised to +find we were old acquaintances." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," Weldon said slowly. "I begin to see. Miss Mellen had never met +Carew, so she had no idea we were friends. What a curious snarl it +all is!" +</P> + +<P> +"The hand of Fate is in it," Ethel assented idly. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you believe in Fate, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Surely. Why not?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, only your cousin said you didn't." +</P> + +<P> +The girl frowned. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice doesn't know all my mental processes," she said a little +severely. +</P> + +<P> +"She didn't pretend to. We were speaking of Fate, yesterday, of the +way certain events in one's life seem absolutely inevitable; at +least, I was. Then the conversation worked around to you, and Miss +Mellen suggested that you usually rose superior to Fate," Weldon +explained at some length. +</P> + +<P> +Once again, Ethel felt the note of finality in his tone. For an +instant, she shut her lips. Then she reverted to the main question. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean inevitable?" +</P> + +<P> +"As if you chose your path, and then found that, for always, it had +been the only thing for you to do. That's not so clear, I know; but +I can't put it much better." +</P> + +<P> +"For instance?" +</P> + +<P> +"For instance, my coming out here when I did. I was interested in +the war; but there was no real question of my coming, until the +month I sailed. Then, all of a sudden, I seemed to know why it was +that I had spent my life on horseback. They told me in England that +the real war was over. When I landed at Cape Town, I found out that +the one thing needed was a man who could ride, and shoot straight. +From the day I sailed from home, until now, I have been like an +actor walking through a part that some one else has written for him. +I have chosen nothing; it all has been inevitable." +</P> + +<P> +She rose to her feet, and stood leaning on the back of her chair. +</P> + +<P> +"In that case, Mr. Weldon, you must include our meeting in your +scheme of things," she said, with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +His answering smile met her smile with perfect frankness. +</P> + +<P> +"I sometimes wonder if that wasn't the most inevitable part of it +all." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWELVE +</H3> + +<P> +The red-brown veldt stretched away to the sky-line, sixty miles +distant. Level as it looked, it was nevertheless a succession of +softly rolling ridges dotted with clumps of dried sagebrush and +spotted here and there with heaps of black volcanic rocks. Far to +the northward, a thin line of poplars and willows marked the bed of +a river. Beyond that, again, the air was thick with smoke from acres +of burning veldt. The days were full of dust, and the nights were +full of frost; it was the month of June, and winter was upon the +land. +</P> + +<P> +The camp was taking a well-earned rest. For days, the men had swept +over the veldt, following hard on the trail of a Boer general who +only made himself visible now and then by a spatter of bullets, when +his convoy train was delayed at a difficult ford. It had been a week +of playing pussin-the-corner over a charred and dusty land, where +the only roads were trails trodden out to powder by the hoofs of +those that had gone before. Both men and mounts were wellnigh +exhausted, and the officers had decreed a halt. +</P> + +<P> +The strain had been intense. Now, with the relaxing of it, its +memory vanished, and the halt swiftly took upon itself the +appearance of a school holiday. Laughing and chaffing each other, +groups of men loitered here and lounged there, smoking, writing +letters, and taking stout, unlovely stitches in their time-worn +khaki clothing. At one side of the camp was the tent of the mess +sergeant, equipped like a portable species of corner grocery. Near +by, Paddy apparently was in his element, presiding over his +camp-kitchen, a vast bonfire encircled with a dozen iron pots. At the +farther edge of the camp Weldon was umpiring a game of football +between his own squadron and a company of the Derbys. Owing to the +athletic zeal of the hour, it was big-side, and Weldon was too busy +in keeping his eye upon so many players to pay much attention to his +own loneliness. +</P> + +<P> +In all truth, however, he was lonely. The week since he had rejoined +his squadron had dragged perceptibly. Captain Frazer was in Cape +Town; Carew was still in hospital at Johannesburg where, under the +eyes of Alice Mellen and her cousin, he was fast resuming his old +finical habits. Dingy and veldt-stained though he might be, Carew at +heart would always remain the exquisite. However, exquisite that he +was bound to be, he was even more the soldier, and his gay eyes had +clouded, as he had wrung Weldon's hand in parting. +</P> + +<P> +"Lucky dog!" he said enviously. "I am off duty for two weeks more, +and you are going back to the thick of things. One must take it as +it comes; but I say, old man, don't forget me when the bullets begin +to pelt at you again." +</P> + +<P> +And Weldon had been better than his promise. He had thought of +Carew, day and night, for the entire week, thought of him and missed +him acutely. Carew was an ideal comrade in that he never, under any +circumstances, took himself in earnest. +</P> + +<P> +A leg which will carry a man on horseback is by no means fit for +football. Weldon, finished player that he was, found it tame work to +umpire a team whose sole idea of tactics was to get there in any way +that offered itself. Half an hour sufficed; then, appointing an +understudy, he walked away in search of Paddy. From the midst of a +torrent of instructions to his quartette of black subordinates, +Paddy's voice sang out a cheery greeting. +</P> + +<P> +"Come along, little feller! Come and get something to eat. It's +hungry you ought to be, the day, after the way you've been walking +all over the country on horseback and an empty stomach. Try this, as +a sample of your dinner, and sit down by the edge of the fire, +whilst, and tell me how it tastes." +</P> + +<P> +The iron spoon scraped lustily over the iron dixey. Then Weldon +returned them both with a low bow. +</P> + +<P> +"Like yourself, Paddy, short and sweet." +</P> + +<P> +Paddy brandished the spoon, weapon-wise. +</P> + +<P> +"Short is it, you little Canuck! So is a pepperpot short; but it +holds a hell of a flavor. Leave Paddy a gun in his hand, and his +short legs will keep up with your long ones, when it's the firing +line that's before him." +</P> + +<P> +"The old sing-song, Paddy. Give us something new." +</P> + +<P> +"So will I, when I get my wishing. Till then, you'll hear it over +and over again. A man of my temper, little one, will never rest +content at a firing line that's all surrounded about with ten-quart +pots of boiling beef." +</P> + +<P> +"Why don't you resign, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Resigned! How can I be resigned? I'm a chunk of dynamite in a +suet-pot, hard to manage and ready to go off at any time that something +strikes me. Meantime, I am like what they say is dirt: matter out of +place." +</P> + +<P> +"Then why don't you get out?" Weldon queried. +</P> + +<P> +"I am out of place now, I'm telling you," Paddy returned, as he +pensively rested his cheek upon the bowl of the spoon in his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but why not refuse to stay here as cook?" +</P> + +<P> +Sorrowfully Paddy shook his head, spoon and all. +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I did do, little one." +</P> + +<P> +"And what happened?" +</P> + +<P> +"This." The spoon came into evidence once more. "They blarneyed me +up and they blarneyed me down, and they said nobody could cook like +Paddy. Anybody could shoot a baker's dozen of Boers; but only one +man in the camp could fill up the boys to give them a fit and level +stomach for the battle. And here I am, and here I'm like to be, till +the new moon in the heavens turns to a curly strip of bully beef. If +I'd known the Captain was about to escape to Cape Town, it's Paddy +that would have escaped with him, hanging on to the tail of his +coat. Saint Patrick's vipers! What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +A hum, a spat, and a little spurt of red dust rolled lazily upward. +Then another hum followed. There was a scurry of men, a squeak of +leather, the light clashing of rifles snatched from the stack; and +the troops were off. +</P> + +<P> +Beside them, the nearer hills rose in brick-red patches against the +sky. Farther away, the brick color changed to gray and, still +beyond, to misty purple. Before them rolled the open, khaki-colored +veldt dotted in one direction by a ragged spot of black that flowed +over the crest of each ridge and vanished from sight for a moment +before rising from the hollow to flow over the crest of the ridge +beyond. And towards the ragged spot of black there rushed onward, at +an ever-lessening distance, the khaki-colored streak of the foremost +rank of C Squadron, led for the moment by a little gray broncho +whose hoofs touched the ground only to spurn it backwards. +</P> + +<P> +The chase was long and hot; but the end was in sight. Directly +across the path of the quarry stretched a low line of willows +showing the course of the stream beneath, and, a few hundred feet +this side of the willows, scattered clumps of green marked as many +scattered dwellings. By the largest clump, the quarry halted and +turned to bay, and the pursuers, unable to check their speed, rode +down upon it and crashed through its ranks, regardless of the +pitiless fire, then, sweeping around on the arc of a mammoth +circle, took up their position in the shelter of a walled kraal, +only a few hundred yards away. Then for a moment they halted, face +to face and in absolute silence. +</P> + +<P> +Even after her mad race, the little gray broncho was breathing +deeply and easily; but Weldon could feel his own breath come short. +Banged in open order before him were a full half-hundred of the +enemy, bearded, black-coated, bandoliered, grim and stolid and ripe +of years. Beside him were the new captain of the troop and seven +men. They were and alert; but there were only nine of them in all. +And the rest of the troop, it seemed to him, were half the veldt-length +away. Vaguely he wondered whether their distant khaki coats +would look as purple as did the distant khaki-colored hills. Then, +quite inconsequently, as he raised his rifle, he noticed that one of +the Boers had a button hanging loosely on its threads from the front +of his coat. He was rather surprised, the next instant, to see the +Boer pitch forward headlong in the dust. It was some time afterward +that he thought to connect the falling with the crack of his own +rifle. +</P> + +<P> +Piggie bounded sidewise, as the mount of the trooper next Weldon +dropped and lay whimpering like a hurt child. Then she steadied to +the touch of Weldon's hand upon her neck. It was not the first time +he had guided her, unscathed, through a leaden shower. She would +trust him yet once again. As he raised his rifle, her wiry legs were +as steady as four iron rods. He saw another Boer fall and yet +another and a third; but one khaki-colored figure lay stiffly beside +him, and another was dragging itself away to a corner of the kraal, +to give greater space to its unwounded comrades. And still the +bullets whizzed about them, thick and ever thicker. +</P> + +<P> +Piggie shied again. This time a bullet had grazed her neck, and the +sight of the narrow sear filled Weldon's mind with a dull, +unreasoning rage. Brutal to aim at the plucky mounts who bore their +riders so gallantly into the flight where all defensive power was +denied themselves! He paused long enough to pat the firm gray neck, +to feel the answering pressure against his hand. Then he raised his +rifle again and took careful aim, as he breathed a wordless prayer +that chance might guide his bullet into the man who had scarred his +faithful friend. Another Boer dropped; Weldon hoped it was by his +own bullet. Then both he and the gray broncho pricked up their ears +as, close on their flank, they heard the beating of galloping hoofs. +</P> + +<P> +In the shock of the scrimmage that followed, there was scant time to +take thought of friend or of foe. On the heels of his new captain +as, of old, he had been on the heels of Captain Frazer, Weldon and +the gray broncho were in the thick of the fight. Then, as the Boers +sullenly fell backwards, Weldon became aware of a familiar voice in +his ears. +</P> + +<P> +"Whisht, little feller! It's Paddy," the voice said in a spooky +undertone, as its owner ranged up alongside the gray broncho. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy!" Weldon stared at him in unfeigned astonishment. "What in +the name of heaven are you doing here, man?" +</P> + +<P> +With perfect composure Paddy squared himself in the saddle. +</P> + +<P> +"Little Canuck dear, as I told you before, heaven is a state of +eternal peace, and therefore an undesirable abode in these hot +times. I prefer a whiff of brimstone, myself; and, by the powers, +I've been getting, it." As he spoke, he took off his hat and showed +a neat trio of holes in the left brim. +</P> + +<P> +"But how did you come here, Paddy?" Weldon asked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Took your advice to heart, my jewel, kicked over my pan of fat and +jumped into the fire. Which, being put into straight English, I +swiped a horse and rode off with the rest of the boys on the tail of +the serpent." Weldon gasped, as he realized the enormity of the +crime. Then he laughed. In his haste to gain possession of a mount, +Paddy had taken no thought for his armament. His sole weapon was the +huge iron spoon, still grasped in his left hand. +</P> + +<P> +"Whose horse did you take, Paddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"I d'know. I never looked to see. I popped my toe into the stirrup +and came away, hot-foot; but," Paddy paused for a deliberate wink; +"as I was leaving camp, I thought I heard the voice of that pigeon-toed +little cockney Parrott, him that used to stub his toes on the +wall at Piquetberg Road, acalling out that some one had mislaid his +horse and he couldn't find it. I was sorry; but I was in a divil of +a haste and couldn't stop to condole with him then." +</P> + +<P> +"But, Paddy, they'll run you out of camp for this," Weldon +remonstrated dutifully. +</P> + +<P> +Paddy's shoulder mounted towards his left ear. "I'm thinking I have +run myself out, and that's just what I was meaning to do. I've been +a captain with four lieutenants under me. Any one of them can sling +the pepper and the salt, and they're welcome; but not one has the +fighting blood in his veins as I have. Let them mind their kettles +and leave me to mind the enemy." +</P> + +<P> +"And if they won't let you go back?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I'll ship myself straight down to Cape Town, and take service +with Captain Frazer. He can fight with the best of them, and he +knows I'm a man. It's riding at his heels I'll be, henceforth and +forevermore." +</P> + +<P> +Turning, Weldon looked long into the jovial Irish face, and at the +hunchy figure that joggled to and fro in the saddle, with no heed to +the rhythm of his horse's pace. +</P> + +<P> +"Who taught you to ride, Paddy?" he asked at length. +</P> + +<P> +For an instant, a lump in Paddy's left cheek betrayed the +whereabouts of his tongue. Then quietly he made answer, "Sure, +little feller, it must have been the grace of Saint Patrick. Nobody +else has ever took a hand in the training of me. But I'll back him +against all the riding masters in London and Aldershot." +</P> + +<P> +And the result showed that Paddy's confidence was not misplaced. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER THIRTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +By midwinter, the war had become a series of guerrilla raids, of +sweeping drives and of occasional skirmishes. The epoch of the +infantry had passed, and it was the day of the mounted man. The +home-going of the great Field Marshal, six months before, had been +followed by the return to England of transports loaded with foot +soldiers. The hour, the country and the enemy all demanded the man +on the horse. With Lord Kitchener in the field and the colonies +aiding the mother country, the outcome was only a matter of time; +but few could as yet say when the fulness of that time should be at +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my mind," Weldon said +thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean?" Ethel Dent threw the question at him a little +defiantly. +</P> + +<P> +"About going home." +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, you aren't going now?" +</P> + +<P> +He winced at the accent. +</P> + +<P> +"I am not sure. I volunteered for six months. My time is up; I paid +my official visit to the Citadel yesterday." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you needed at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. At least, not in any real sense." +</P> + +<P> +"But you are needed here." +</P> + +<P> +"There are enough without me, and the need will not last long." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be too sure. On the Dunottar Castle, there were plenty of +people who laughed at you men for coming out to volunteer, after the +war was over. You have proved that they laughed at nothing. Prove it +again." +</P> + +<P> +Rising, he walked the length of the room and stood looking out from +the long front window. The bamboo screens and the willow chairs were +gone from their veranda corner; the flower-boxes were empty now, and +Table Bay gleamed coldly back at him in the late afternoon sun of +midwinter. Then he turned around to face the girl, seated where her +golden hair seemed to him to catch and hold all the light centering +about the gay little tea-table. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't," he said with some impatience. "Your arguments all echo my +own wish. I am pulled in two ways at once. At home, the mother is +growing restless. Since Vlaakfontein, she has lost her nerve, and +her heart is set on my meeting her in London in October." +</P> + +<P> +Deliberately Ethel made a neat triangle out of three unused spoons. +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" she said, without looking up. +</P> + +<P> +"Piggie and I have had a smell of powder," he answered briefly. "We +want more." +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" she said again. +</P> + +<P> +"The question is, are we likely to get it." +</P> + +<P> +"Not in England; not even in Cape Town," she answered, smiling at +the spoons before her. +</P> + +<P> +"Then where?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wherever the Boers are thickest." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but, after all, you are talking platitudes, Miss Dent," he +said, with recurring impatience. +</P> + +<P> +This time, she lifted her dark blue eyes to his face and allowed +them to rest there for a full minute. +</P> + +<P> +"But you forbade me to argue," she said demurely. +</P> + +<P> +He dropped down into a chair and faced her resolutely. +</P> + +<P> +"Now look here, Miss Dent, I can't talk shop in tea-table English. +In fact, shop has no place at a tea-table, anyway. Still, you were +the one to start it. Let's have it out. I don't want to funk, at +this late day. If there is any fighting to be done, I want a hand in +it. I went into a game of a certain length; I hope I played up, and +stuck to the professional rules. That game is played out. I am not +Trooper Weldon of the Scottish Horse. I am plain Harvard Weldon +again and, to be quite frank, I don't like the change from khaki to +tweed. But about going in for another game: it all depends on what +the game will be. If it plays itself out, well and good; if it just +dribbles on and on, without accomplishing anything, even an end, +then I can see no use in going in for it. Fighting is one thing; +having a picnic all over the face of South Africa is quite another +matter. And, for the life of me, I can't see which is bound to +come." +</P> + +<P> +There was a minor cadence to the final phrase. Then he fell silent, +and sat staring at the rug, while Ethel, leaning back in her chair, +studied him at her ease. All in all, she was pleased with the result +of her study. Always frank and likable, Weldon had developed +wonderfully during those past months of hard work and slender +comfort. Underneath his sunburn, his face had taken on new lines of +resolution. His eyes were as clear as ever; but their boyishness was +all in the past. It was a man who had come striding into the room, +that afternoon, and paused beside her tea-table. And Ethel, looking +up, had greeted him as she might have greeted Baden-Powell in his +place. +</P> + +<P> +To a great extent, Cape Town was resuming at least a semblance of +its oldtime social life. Heroes were more plentiful than is +altogether normal, however, and there was a dust-colored tint to +most assemblages. During the past months, the Dents' house had come +to be one of the focal points of society, and there were few men of +note who had failed to mount the wide white steps and pass between +the flanking pillars at the top, on their way to the drawing-room +beyond. Once there, they usually came again, immediately, if they +lingered in Cape Town; on their way back from the front, if no +quicker opportunity offered itself. Many a bullet-interrupted +conversation was resumed there; many a boy, just out from home, +confided his mingled homesickness and aspirations to dainty, +white-haired Mrs. Dent in her easy-chair; many a seasoned officer forgot +his ambitions and his disappointments and even his still sensitive +wounds in the gay talk of the golden-haired girl by the tray. As a +rule, Ethel talked shop with no man. She merely looked sympathetic, +and left him to do the talking, which he did unhesitatingly and +without reservation. From the first hour of their meeting, Weldon +had been the one exception. Even in the hospital at Johannesburg, +she had gone over with him in detail his experiences in camp and +field, and it had been Weldon by no means who had done all the +talking. +</P> + +<P> +To-day, as she had welcomed the tall Canadian in his irreproachable +frock-coat, she had known a sudden pang of regret. Undeniably, his +tailor was an artist. Nevertheless, she liked him better as she had +seen him last, in his stained khaki and his well-worn shoes, bending +over her hand in farewell, then taking The Nig's bridle from the +waiting Kruger Bobs, to leap into the tarnished saddle, lift his hat +and ride away out of sight. No one but Ethel herself had known that +it was not distance alone which had rendered him invisible to her. +And the next week in the hospital had dragged perceptibly. At the +end of that time, she had been quite ready to say good by to +Johannesburg and all that it contained. But, meanwhile, her smile +gave no clue to her memories, as she offered her hand to Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +"I knew you were here," she said cordially; "and I have any number +of things to talk over with you. There is no talking for me now, +though, with all these people on my hands. Can't you stay on and +dine with us? That will give us an hour to gossip comfortably, and +Captain Frazer is to be the only other guest. I asked him, on the +chance of your appearing. Oh, good afternoon, Colonel Douglas!" +</P> + +<P> +And Weldon found himself swept on out of her radius. +</P> + +<P> +He took refuge beside Mrs. Dent and, from that safe slack-water, he +made a thorough survey of the room. It was the first time he had +been present at one of the Dents' reception days, and he +acknowledged himself surprised at what he saw. Here and there an +acquaintance nodded to him; but, for the most part, he was a +stranger to the guests, save for the dozen whom he knew well by +sight and better still by reputation. Moreover, while he watched +her, he began to wonder whether he were not something of a stranger +to Ethel herself. This stately girl was not the comrade with whom he +had tramped the deck of the Dunottar Castle, nor yet the friend of +his early days in Cape Town, nor yet again the blithe companion of +his last tedious hours of convalescence. This girl was altogether +admirable; but a bit awe-inspiring withal. He watched the nonchalant +ease with which she provided a white-haired veteran of many +wars and many orders with a cup of steaming tea, and then sat and +chatted with him while he drank it. He felt himself a bashful boy, +as he watched her, and, like any other bashful boy, he fell to +talking to Mrs. Dent about his mother. +</P> + +<P> +Then the last visitor made a reluctant exit, and Ethel crossed the +room to his side. With the passing of the little throng of guests +her assured manners had passed, and she met him with the same +informal manner which had marked those last days at Johannesburg. +</P> + +<P> +"Now," she said, as she dropped down beside her mother's chair; "you +must tell me all about everything, Mr. Weldon. And, first of all, +are you quite strong again?" +</P> + +<P> +Question had followed question, eager, girlish and sincere, until +Weldon's answers had covered all the interval since they last had +met. At length, the delicate little mother had gone away to rest +before time for dinner. Weldon's strong arm had half-supported, +half-carried her up the staircase. Then, returning to the +drawing-room, he had joined Ethel beside the deserted tea-table. +</P> + +<P> +"After six months of the billy and the fryingpan, it is wonderfully +good to handle china again," he said, as he halted on the hearth rug +and stood smiling down at her. +</P> + +<P> +She smiled back at him in full approval. Weldon looked very much the +lord of creation, as he stood there with his back to the fire and +one elbow resting on the mantel beside him. The position suited him, +and, speaking in quite another sense, it suited her also. +</P> + +<P> +"Then a taste of civilization is pleasant now and then, even to a +grizzled warrior like yourself?" she questioned lightly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, for the time being. One never knows, though, how long that +time being will last." +</P> + +<P> +"What shall you do, when the war ends?" +</P> + +<P> +"Go home, take up a share in the pater's business, and grow stout +and lazy," he answered her unsmilingly. +</P> + +<P> +"An alluring prospect." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but there will be other things: an occasional dinner, and even +a tea now and then." +</P> + +<P> +Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at him through her long +yellow lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"And shall you never remember to miss Africa?" she asked indolently. +</P> + +<P> +His eyes rested upon her gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, often. Moreover forgive my bluntness, but it is one of the +privileges of a soldier—moreover, Miss Dent, I shall miss you." +</P> + +<P> +Her color came; but she made no effort to ignore his words. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you," she said, with equal gravity. "I am glad to have you +say so. But I hope it may be long before that day comes." "I can't +tell. I had expected to sail for home, in a week or two. Now I am +not so sure." +</P> + +<P> +"Whether you wish to?" +</P> + +<P> +"Whether I ought. When I left the Transvaal, the work seemed nearly +done. Down here, the stories are less promising." He paused; then he +added thoughtfully, "But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my +mind." +</P> + +<P> +Coffee was served in the drawing-room, that night. Ethel roused +herself from a reverie as Weldon and Captain Frazer joined her. To +their half-mocking questions, she admitted the fact of her +thoughtfulness. To neither one did she see fit to acknowledge its +cause. The mood passed swiftly, however, and it left her more +brilliantly gay than either man had ever seen her until then. Each +frankly confessed himself dazzled; each one of them, more grave by +nature than she often showed herself, was secretly uneasy lest her +sudden overflow of spirits was in some fashion directed towards his +companion; yet so skilfully did she lead the conversation that, at +the evening's end, neither Weldon nor the Captain could produce any +valid claim to being considered the favored guest. +</P> + +<P> +"It has been good to have you here," she said gayly, as she gave +them each a hand at parting. "Even if I was not present at your +meeting, I have always felt that I had a finger-tip, at least, in +your friendship." Then, as she dropped their hands, she faced the +Captain with sudden seriousness. "Captain Frazer," she said slowly; +"Mr. Weldon's time is over, and he has left the service. He thinks +the fighting is all done. I am only a woman; I can't explain things +very clearly, and so," she hesitated a little; "and so I think I +shall leave his soul in your hands. There are plenty of people still +in South Africa; there are never too many men." And, with a grave +little nod, half intent, half girlish, she turned away from the +door, leaving the heavy drapery to sway to and fro behind her. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER FOURTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +Three days later, Weldon ran lightly up the stone steps and rang at +the Dents' door. +</P> + +<P> +"Is Miss Dent in?" he asked the maid. "I know it isn't her day; but +tell her I am leaving town almost immediately, and I wish to say +good by." +</P> + +<P> +Notwithstanding his message, Ethel was long about appearing, and her +face and manner, when she halted on the threshold, were a bit +unapproachable. Then, as her eyes lighted on the brown uniform and +the wide slouch hat, her whole expression changed, and she came +forward with an eagerness which she was at no pains to conceal. +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed in mock humility. +</P> + +<P> +"Trooper Weldon, if you please." +</P> + +<P> +"I am delighted. Is it your old troop?" +</P> + +<P> +He shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"No. I know the Transvaal and all its resources by heart. I have +chosen the Orange Free State. It is a new country; and, besides, all +the best of the fighting is going to be there, on the heels of De +Wet." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you a prophet?" she asked, while she dropped into a chair and +motioned to him to be seated. +</P> + +<P> +"No; but I suspect that Captain Frazer is," he answered, as he +obeyed her. +</P> + +<P> +She raised her brows questioningly. +</P> + +<P> +"Does he go, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not now. His staff work holds him here among the fleshpots," he +replied. "Later, he may be able to come up to us." +</P> + +<P> +"Us?" +</P> + +<P> +"The South African Light Horse." +</P> + +<P> +"Why did you choose them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because they are to operate in the Orange River country, and +because they would have me." +</P> + +<P> +"Is that a matter to consider?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed while, placing his hat on the floor, he settled +himself more comfortably in his chair. His face was unusually +animated, that day, and his trim new uniform and his carefully-wound +putties added inches to his height and showed his lithe, lean figure +at its very best. +</P> + +<P> +"I considered it," he answered then. "It is a trick of mine, as soon +as I decide I want a thing, to be in living terror of losing it. +However, the ordeal was short and not too severe. Captain Frazer +introduced me to a little lieutenant who looked me over, asked me if +I could ride, if I could shoot a rifle and if I had had any +experience. I fancy the matter was settled beforehand. Then I went +out and treated The Nig and Piggie to some new shoes, and myself to +a new uniform, and the deed was done." +</P> + +<P> +"Are you glad, or sorry?" she asked slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"That there was no more red tape?" +</P> + +<P> +"That you decided as you did?" +</P> + +<P> +He stared at her thoughtfully for a minute. Then he answered,— +</P> + +<P> +"But I imagine it rather decided itself. I spoke of it to you once +before, I remember, when we were up in hospital, how there never +seemed to be much choice open to me. I fancy I am deciding things; I +mull over them till I am disgusted with the whole matter. Then, +after I have made up my mind what I am going to do, I suddenly +realize that there was never any question about it from the start. I +have simply said 'yes' to an irresistible force." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," she assented slowly. "I am not so sure." Then she turned +to the tangible fact. "But when do you go?" +</P> + +<P> +"To-morrow morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry it must be so soon," she said quietly. "Still, I am glad +you are going. You never would have been satisfied to sail for home +now." +</P> + +<P> +"No," he answered. "I should not." +</P> + +<P> +Then the talk halted again. +</P> + +<P> +"Where is Mr. Carew?" she asked abruptly at length, less from +interest in Carew than from a desire to escape so insistent a pause. +</P> + +<P> +"At the Mount Nelson." "Here in Cape Town?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. He came down with me. We volunteered together, you know, and +his time was ended, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Does he go home?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; not Harry Carew. We had decided to keep together in our plans; +in fact, it was one of the conditions of our coming out. But, from +the start, he has hated the idea of going back home as long as there +was an armed Boer left in the field." +</P> + +<P> +"And he goes with you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, to Springfontein. We have our headquarters there for the +present. For Carew's sake, I hope it will be more riding and +scouting than actual fighting. The man is made of some material that +draws all the bullets in sight." +</P> + +<P> +Ethel smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't let him stop near you, then," she advised. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? He is as good as a shield. It is hard on him, though. He +was hit four or five times before Vlaakfontein, and has had one +scratch since." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the trouble? Is he foolhardy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Foolhardy in war, Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, just that. There is no sense in taking needless risks." +</P> + +<P> +"But it is mighty hard to draw the line between avoiding needless +risks and funking necessary ones," he answered. "But Carew isn't +reckless. He is plucky, but very level-headed, and he means to take +care of himself, when he can. One can't always, you know. And then +he is wonderfully unlucky." +</P> + +<P> +"You believe in luck, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, or Fate. What else makes a man move out of the way, just in +time for the bullet to graze his cheek? He doesn't see the bullet +coming; neither does the man who stops it. Both of them are busy +about something else. For the man who escapes it, it is Providence; +for the man who gets killed, it is Fate." +</P> + +<P> +She tried to rouse him from his sudden gravity. +</P> + +<P> +"And for both, it is mere chance." +</P> + +<P> +"If you call it that. Miss Dent—" He hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she assented gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"It was only a chance, but a strange one," he went on, with his eyes +fixed on the topmost ridge of his brown puttie. "We were climbing +the face of a kopje, one day. It was very steep, and we crawled up a +narrow trail in single file. Two days before, our guns had been +shelling the whole kopje, and they must have cracked it up badly. +All at once, the man above me loosened a great lump of rock. I was +exactly underneath it. It gave a little bound outward, went +completely over me and struck full on the head of the next man in +line." +</P> + +<P> +The girl sat, bending forward in her chair, her strong, quiet hands +clasped loosely in her lap. +</P> + +<P> +"And he?" she asked quite low. +</P> + +<P> +"He dropped to the foot of the kopje, dead. In his fall, he dragged +down the next man after him, and his leg was crushed." +</P> + +<P> +"And you were saved!" she said a bit breathlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Doesn't it make you feel a vague responsibility, as if you must +live up to something that you couldn't quite understand?" +</P> + +<P> +Without looking up, he bowed in assent. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he said then. "Don't think me foolishly superstitious, Miss +Dent, or too egotistic. I try not to pay much attention to it. Once +in a while, though, not too often, it all comes back over me, and I +feel then as if my life might have been kept for something that is +still ahead of me." +</P> + +<P> +"And doesn't it leave you feeling anxious about making all your +decisions?" she asked slowly, as she leaned back again in her chair. +</P> + +<P> +"At first. Then I remember how that, and some other things have been +settled for me." +</P> + +<P> +"What then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Then I shut my teeth and face forward. All one can do, is to forget +the future and take the present as it comes, making the best of each +minute and leaving the hour to look out for itself," he answered +simply. "Sometimes one makes better progress by drifting than he +does by punting against the current." +</P> + +<P> +She bit her lip. +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes I think, though—" Suddenly she roused herself and gave a +nervous little laugh. "Captain Frazer is coming up the steps," she +added. +</P> + +<P> +"You think?" Weldon reminded her, as she rose. +</P> + +<P> +But she shook her head and laughed again, this time more in her +natural manner. +</P> + +<P> +"I think that I wish you would bring Mr. Carew to call on me, next +time you come," she said evasively. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. He will be glad to come. The only question is when the +next time will arrive." +</P> + +<P> +"You said Captain Frazer was a prophet," she said, as she moved +towards the door. "Ask him." +</P> + +<P> +Tall, alert, eager, the Captain entered the room in time to catch +her words. +</P> + +<P> +"A prophet of what and to whom, Miss Dent?" he asked, as he bowed +over her outstretched hand. +</P> + +<P> +"To Mr. Weldon, in regard to the future fighting," she answered +gayly. +</P> + +<P> +"You here, Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, to say good by." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Frazer nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I saw Mitchell, this morning. He spoke well of you; of Carew, too, +for the matter of that. He told me your troop would be off in the +morning, and asked me to diagnose your best points." +</P> + +<P> +"Could you find any?" Weldon asked imperturbably. "A few. I told him +you could sit tight and shoot straight," the Captain answered, +laughing. Then he added gravely, "And I also told him you could ride +the fiend incarnate, and that, as far as I knew, you didn't lose +your head when you were under fire." +</P> + +<P> +For the instant, Weldon forgot his hostess, as he looked up to meet +the Captain's blue eyes squarely. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. But it is more than I deserve." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you must try to live up to it," Ethel advised him languidly. +"It merely increases your responsibilities, for now you have two +reputations to support, your own for pluck and the Captain's for +being a judge of his fellowmen. It is an awful weight that you are +carrying on your shoulders, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +"If it grows too heavy, I will slide some of it off on your own," he +returned, as he picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "Your +responsibility is back of mine, Miss Dent. It was you who advised me +to stay in South Africa." +</P> + +<P> +"Not at all. I presented the case and kept my advice to myself," she +rebelled promptly. +</P> + +<P> +"Certain presentments are stronger than much advising." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. But in the end, you remember, I commended your soul to +Captain Frazer's keeping." +</P> + +<P> +He bowed with the odd, old-fashioned deference which it pleased him +to assume at times. "Captain Frazer may have saved it; but it may +have been you who made it worth his efforts at salvation." +</P> + +<P> +She laughed again. Nevertheless, her eyes showed her pleasure. +</P> + +<P> +"Then we, Captain Frazer and I, must divide the responsibility for +your future," she replied. "In any case, may it be all good!" +</P> + +<P> +The drapery fell backward over his departing figure, and, for an +instant, Ethel stood staring at the swaying folds. Then, turning, +she walked back to the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"All good," she repeated. "I know you echo the wish, Captain Frazer. +But—isn't it hard to say good by?" +</P> + +<P> +"In these days most of all," he assented slowly. "And one never can +tell when his own turn may come." +</P> + +<P> +"Nor what its end may be," she added. Then impetuously she rose +again and moved up and down the room. "Look at that sunshine +outside, Captain Frazer," she said restlessly. "It ought to forbid +any such gloomy moods. I believe all this war and so many partings +are spoiling my nerve. I really feel quite blue, to-day; and Mr. +Weldon made it worse." +</P> + +<P> +"By saying good by?" +</P> + +<P> +Glancing up, she was astonished at the wishful, hungry look in the +blue eyes before her. "Yes, a little," she said lightly; "for I hate +the very word. But, if it must be spoken, it should always be short +and staccato. Instead, he sat here, and we talked about Fate and +wounds and all sorts of direful things." She shook herself and +shivered slightly. Then she sat down in the chair which Weldon had +just left vacant. "It is bad manners to have nerves, Captain Frazer. +Forgive me first, and then tell me something altogether flippant, to +make me forget things." +</P> + +<P> +But her mood had caught the Captain in its grasp. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you sure you want to forget?" he asked her gravely. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she made vehement answer. "Always!" +</P> + +<P> +But not even her decided answer brought back the eager light into +his dark blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, an hour later found him still sitting there. Ethel's +depression had vanished, to be followed by a mood of wayward +merriment for which the honest, straightforward soldier was totally +at a loss to account. Sincere himself, he looked for sincerity in +others. If Ethel's gravity had been unfeigned, how could it so soon +give place to her present buoyancy? Not the strictest code of +hospitality could demand that a hostess should straightway toss +aside the thought of the parting guest who had gone away to battle +and, perhaps, to sudden death. And, if the girl had been insincere +in her parting from Weldon, why should she be sincere in her present +absorption in his own interests? And, if her regrets for Weldon were +as great as they had seemed to be, then what was the use of his +remaining by her side any longer? The horns of the dilemma extended +themselves to infinity and branched again and again as they +extended. Meanwhile, his eyes were full of trouble, and his answers +to her questions were vague and faltering. Until her sudden trip to +Johannesburg, Captain Frazer had taken the girl as a matter of +course. Since then, he had begun to doubt, and the doubts were +thickening. +</P> + +<P> +But, after all, there was no real reason for doubt. During her one +short season in London, the Captain had met Ethel constantly, he had +been quite obviously the favorite of the old aunt who had presided +over the girl's introduction to society, and his later meetings with +Ethel at sundry week-end gatherings had convinced him that he had no +serious rival. Then had come the war; and Ethel's absence from town +had made a farewell impossible. Captain Frazer had sailed away, +leaving the past behind him; but the future was still his, to be +lost or won, according to the use he made of his manhood's chances. +</P> + +<P> +And then, on the dazzling summer morning which had ushered in the +new century, he had caught a glimpse of Ethel riding towards home. +Three days later, as he had gone away down the broad white steps, he +had felt convinced that the future already lay in his grasp. It had +been the selfsame Ethel, unchanged and changeless to his loyal mind, +who had met him with smiling, eager cordiality. The year of +separation was cast aside; their friendship began again at the +precise spot where it had been broken off. +</P> + +<P> +Since then, he had seen her often, occasionally alone, sometimes +with her mother, sometimes the central figure of a little crowd who +were obviously striving to win her favor. Her father's fortune was +in part the cause of this; but the greater, surer cause lay within +the girl's own personality. Ethel Dent was no negative character. +However, Captain Frazer had never found her too absorbed in her +other companions to be able to give him a share of her attention +which differed from all other shares that she bestowed, in being a +bit more personal in its cordiality. His black-fringed blue eyes +were keen and far-sighted. They assured him that, whatever her +regard for him, at least it was true that, in all her Cape Town +life, there was no man for whom Ethel Dent had a sincerer liking. +And then, all at once, a doubt had assailed his mind, and the doubt +had centered itself in this long, lean Canadian with the grave, +steady face and the boyish manner. Worst of all, the doubt had +scarcely arisen before he himself had become aware of his own +growing liking for the young Canadian. Captain Leo Frazer was +strictly just. He admitted to himself that Weldon was in every way +worthy to be chosen by Ethel Dent. However, he was determined as +well as just, and he had no mind at all to allow Ethel Dent to +choose any man but one, and that one was himself, Leo Frazer. +</P> + +<P> +And now he was sitting moodily by her fireside, listening to her +light, easy flow of talk and asking himself certain questions, which +he was powerless to answer. +</P> + +<P> +As he rose at last, some sudden impulse made him speak from the very +midst of his train of thought. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you know he had refused a commission?" he asked, regardless of +antecedents. +</P> + +<P> +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. +</P> + +<P> +"No. Did he?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Mitchell told me, this morning." +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder why." +</P> + +<P> +"He said he had pledged himself to stay with the rank and file, that +it was easier to take orders than to give them." +</P> + +<P> +"Strange!" she said thoughtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Strange that he should feel so?" +</P> + +<P> +She shook her head. +</P> + +<P> +"No. He told me about that, coming out. I am not surprised. But it +is strange that he shouldn't have spoken of the matter now." +</P> + +<P> +"It was like him. He doesn't tell all his best deeds," Captain +Frazer said, with direct frankness "Still, I thought it was fairer +that you should know." +</P> + +<P> +Her color came, as she met his eyes; but she offered no question in +regard to the meaning of his final phrase. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER FIFTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +"Good reason they call them kopjes," Carew grumbled scornfully, as +he swept his arm about the encircling landscape. "Every flat-top +hill is an exact copy of every other flat-top hill, and they all are +more or less hideous to behold. My one source of rejoicement lies in +the fact that the pattern was worn out down here, instead of being +sent up to make our mountains by. I hate a bobtail horse; but it's +nothing so bad as these everlasting bobtail hills. And, by Jove, +there comes another dust devil!" +</P> + +<P> +Far away across the veldt, a tiny spurt of dust twirled up into the +air and came spinning towards them like a huge, translucent top. +Gaining momentum as it spun along and picking up more dust as it +advanced, it came whirling onward, rising high and higher until it +swept down on them, a huge, khaki-colored, balloon-like mass. It +caught them in its whirl, ground its stinging, sifting particles +into their clothing, their skin and even into their shut eyes. Then +it passed them by, and went spinning away in its course. Carew swore +softly, as he wiped the dust from his lashes. +</P> + +<P> +"Beastly things! There really ought to be a society formed for the +suppression of dust devils in their infancy. What do you suppose +becomes of the things, Weldon? There's no stopping them, once they +get under way; and, at their rate of growth, they could bury a +township in their old age." +</P> + +<P> +"Granted they could find one to bury," Weldon returned. "Meanwhile, +observe your bath tub." +</P> + +<P> +Carew glanced down at the dust-filled buckets at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, hang!" he said concisely. "And I was about to prink." +</P> + +<P> +"One would think you needed it now more than ever," Weldon answered, +as he shook himself free from the thickest of the dust. "What's the +use of trying to keep clean, Carew?" +</P> + +<P> +"Precious little. I used to talk about I 'the un-tubbed.' Now I +mean, merely for the sake of example, to shave twice in the month, +and swab myself off between whiles. It's not for comfort, I assure +you. It's my belief that an occasional bath is worse than none. It +merely stirs up memories of the buried past, and aspirations that +can't be fulfilled. However—" And Carew, the quondam exquisite, +pulled off his socks and shirt, punched them down into one of the +buckets and then did his British best to wash himself in the other. +</P> + +<P> +His lamentations rose again, however, when he put on his +time-stained uniform once more. +</P> + +<P> +"I now understand why Brother Boer sleeps in his clothes," he +observed grimly. "Cleanliness, may be next to godliness; but it is +mighty near the edge of the diabolical to put yourself back into +clothes that are only fit for the dust bin. When I am field marshal +of a long campaign, my first act will be to establish swimming tanks +and laundries as a branch of the Army Service Corps. Meanwhile, see +here!" His open hand came down on his dust-colored coat. Ten minutes +later, the print of every finger was still distinctly visible. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon watched him sympathetically. Thanks to the efforts of Kruger +Bobs, his own clothing was slightly less filled with dust, and his +abandoned socks came back to him in a state of comparative +cleanliness. Satisfied with the fact, he made no effort to inquire +into the method of its achievement. +</P> + +<P> +Carew, meanwhile, his coat off, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, +was grappling with his efforts to produce laundry effect from a +wooden bucket and a few quarts of dingy water. Beyond splashing his +putties and giving himself a pain in the hinges of his back, he +accomplished little. The garments were very wet; but their griminess +was increased, rather than diminished. Carew's face fell, as he +lifted them one by one. Then he shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly aren't cleaner; but they may be a bit fresher for +being irrigated," he observed hopefully. "Look out!" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon dodged out of range, as a sock, squeezed from the ankle +downward, yielded up its irrigation in a sudden spurt through the +toe. +</P> + +<P> +"Hold on, Carew; I'm no candidate for baptism," he adjured his +friend. "Let your things soak for a while, and I'll send Kruger Bobs +over to take them in hand, as soon as he gets through polishing off +The Nig." +</P> + +<P> +Carew straightened his aching back. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll change work with him," he suggested promptly. "A horse is on +your own level; it's degrading to run a Chinese laundry." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon glanced from the wooden bucket to the soaked wrists and +splashed putties of his companion. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish Miss Mellen could see you now, Carew," he remarked unkindly. +</P> + +<P> +With unexpected suddenness, Carew mounted his dignity. +</P> + +<P> +"Unfortunately Miss Mellen is at Johannesburg. Moreover, Miss Mellen +has probably seen men in this mess before now," he answered a little +shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"Doubtless. She may have been in a similar fix, herself. If she +were, I suspect she would put it through and come out on top," +Weldon replied, with an accent of hearty and respectful admiration +which mollified his companion. "There's my call. I must go to +inspect my day nursery." And, leaving Carew beside his amateur +wash-tub, he went striding away to the farther side of the camp where a +hollow between the hills had been converted into a monstrous kraal. +Involuntarily he smiled, as he walked off to his duty. Carew had +been an edifying spectacle, as he had sacrificed himself upon the +altar of cleanliness. He had been neither deft, dignified nor +devout; and, in all truth, Alice Mellen would have found it hard to +recognize her finical patient in the dusty, unshaven man whose hair +bore unmistakable signs of having been pruned with a pair of pocket +scissors. Little of Carew's past month had been spent in the base +camp at Springfontein. With hundreds of other men, he had gone +galloping up and down the Free State on the slippery heels of De +Wet, now being shot at by prowling Boers, now engaged in a lively +skirmish from which he never made his exit totally unscathed, now +riding for weary, dusty miles upon a scent which ultimately proved +to be a false one. And, meanwhile, not a postbag came into camp +without a letter for Carew, bearing the mark of Johannesburg. It was +not altogether resultless that Carew's foot had been obstinately +slow in its healing. +</P> + +<P> +To Weldon, a fixture in camp, fell the care of receiving Carew's +mail. At last, when one day the bag brought in two letters addressed +in the same dashing, angular handwriting, he forsook his principles +and made open comment. +</P> + +<P> +"There is a slight monotony about your mail, in these latter days, +Carew," he observed dispassionately. And Carew had answered, with +perfect composure,— +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, in view of my chronic trick of being potted at, I find it wise +to keep on good terms with my nurse. It may prove handy in case of +accident, like an insurance policy, you know. Is that all?" And, +cramming the letters into his pocket, he walked away to his tent. +</P> + +<P> +And Weldon, as he watched him, nodded contentedly to himself. He +liked Carew; he also liked Alice Mellen. Beyond that, he made no +effort to go. Just now, he cared to penetrate the thoughts of but +one woman. The others he was willing to take on trust. Nevertheless, +it would have caused him some surprise, could he have reviewed all +the mental processes of Alice Mellen, during the past ten months. +For Weldon, the days at Springfontein differed not one whit, one +from another, yet each day was full of an excitement which sent his +blood stinging through his veins. Every man in the regiment could +ride a broken horse; but, for many of them their attainments stopped +there, and broken horses were few and far between. With the +increasing need of troopers for the guerrilla raiding into which the +war was degenerating, with the inevitable losses of a long campaign, +mounts of any kind were scarce. Nevertheless, consternation had +descended upon the camp, one day, when three hundred kicking, +squealing American bronchos had been detrained and placed at their +service. The next day, casualties were frequent; on the day after +that, there was made announcement that mounted parade would be +omitted. Weldon read the notice, smiled and went in search of his +captain. He was tired of inaction, and he felt his muscles growing +soft. They hardened speedily, however. +</P> + +<P> +Day after day, he went striding into the kraal whence, after a +skirmish which was more or less prolonged, he emerged astride a +mount which, with shrieking voice and rampant hoofs, gave notice to +all that such a liberty could not be permitted. Nevertheless, it was +permitted. Sometimes, the final contest took place miles away from +the point of its beginning. Sometimes horse and rider settled the +matter in the course of a few concentric circles of an hundred-yard +radius; sometimes it bucked; sometimes it rolled, and sometimes it +merely sat down upon its haunches, dog-wise, and refused to budge. +Almost invariably, it came out from the contest, unscarred save for +its dignity and its temper. Weldon's lips shut tight; but his eyes +rarely blazed. These wild, frightened creatures taxed his patience +and his resource; but they hardly touched his temper in the least. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the use of thrashing a beast that's mad with terror?" he +answered one critical amateur who had watched the game from a safe +distance. "The creature is in a funk, as it is; there's no use in +adding to it. All I'm after is to teach 'em that saddles and bridles +don't bite. Treat 'em decently and sit tight, and they'll come right +and learn to trust you in the end." +</P> + +<P> +And, as mount after mount was delivered over to the waiting +authorities, it came to be a matter of general belief that the +regimental rough-rider knew his business, albeit he accomplished it +more by dint of urging than by many blows. Six weeks of this work +had told upon him, told in the right direction. Under the brown +skin, the muscles stood out like knotted cords; his nerves were +steady; he ate like a wolf and slept the dreamless sleep of a +healthy child. To the outward eye, his face changed but little. Its +outlines were more rugged, the curves of his lips a bit more +resolute; but that was all. +</P> + +<P> +Now and then, amid the merry group at the camp fire, he sat silent, +while he let his mind range away to the southward. Somewhere there, +in the green-ringed town in the mountain's shelter, was a tall girl +with yellow hair and eyes which matched the zenith when it darkens +after the dropping of the sun. His fancy painted her in every +conceivable situation: walking, riding, resting at noonday in the +shaded western end of the veranda, or pouring tea for relays of +thirsty guests. As a rule, the Captain's figure was in the +background of these pictures, and Weldon was content to have it so. +In all South Africa, these were his two best friends; it was good +that they could be together. And the Captain was an older man, much +older. When one lives in the open air during twenty-four hours of +every day, jealousy has scant place in his mind. The smaller vices +are for the cramped town, not for the limitless, unbroken veldt. +</P> + +<P> +And now and then a day brought with it a letter, frank, friendly and +full of news. Those days Weldon marked with a white stone; but his +sleep, on those nights, was as quiet and dreamless as ever. Facts +were facts. Theories and hopes were for the future; and no man looks +much to the future in a time of war. +</P> + +<P> +Besides the letters, there were minor events, too, events which went +to fill up the letters of reply. Now it was a hospital train which +halted at the camp on the way southward, and each red-taped nurse +had reminded him of Alice Mellen, and of those last days in +Johannesburg. Now it was a two-day trek, as escort for a convoy +train whose long lines of bullock-drawn wagons marked the brown +veldt with a wavering stripe of duller brown. Again a wounded picket +came straying back to camp, bleeding and dazed, to report the +inevitable sniping which furnished the running accompaniment to most +other events; or an angry squad came riding in, to tell of the shots +which had followed close upon the raising of the white flag, or of +the score of armed men who had suddenly leaped out from the safe +shelter of a Red-Cross ambulance. And, on one occasion, he had been +in the thick of a similar fray. Hand to hand, he had fought on the +doorsteps of a farmhouse to which he and his five comrades had been +bidden by a sprightly Boer in gown and sunbonnet. At the door, the +bonnet had been cast from the cropped head, and the gown had been +pushed back to give access to the bandolier beneath, while a dozen +shots from an upper window had driven them from the dooryard into +the comparative shelter of the lower rooms. The skirmish had ended +with a charge up the stairway. Weldon, that same night, had written +to Ethel a wholly humorous account of the whole affair, and it was +not until long afterwards that she had learned from Carew, who had +been of the party, which was the trooper who had mounted guard over +the room where the aged grandmother had tucked herself away under +her bed. The old Dutch vrouw had bidden him to share her shelter; +but he had taken note of her dimensions, and had declined her +hospitality. Later on, when the fight was over and she had painfully +wriggled her way out from her trap, he had also declined certain of +her manifestations of gratitude. Even chivalry to the aged possesses +its humorous side. +</P> + +<P> +Then, one November night, Weldon came into his tent with alert step +and glowing eyes. He found Carew going through his camp outfit in +detail, and, squatting on the floor in the corner, Kruger Bobs was +cleaning accoutrements as if his life depended on it. +</P> + +<P> +"You look as if events were about to happen," he observed, from the +dispassionate distance of the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +"They are." +</P> + +<P> +"Ask them to include me, then." +</P> + +<P> +"What do you need of events, you regimental broncho-buster?" +</P> + +<P> +"One gets sick of even the best horseflesh in time," he answered +nonchalantly. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, for you are doomed to more of it." +</P> + +<P> +"Another herd of bronchos?" Weldon's voice showed that the idea +displeased him. +</P> + +<P> +"No; but a two-hundred-mile trek across country." +</P> + +<P> +"Good. I am tired of being cooped up, and a spin of that kind will +be a boon." +</P> + +<P> +Carew settled back on his heels and looked up at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Spin is it! Your only spin will be on your own axis. We are to act +as escort for a convoy train of fifty wagons and ten times fifty +mules. We shall make six miles a day, and our tongues will be wholly +corrupted by the language of the mule-drivers. And, in the end, we +shall get to—" +</P> + +<P> +"A glorious fight, I trust," Weldon supplemented. +</P> + +<P> +Gloomily Carew shook his head. "No; merely to Winburg. We are going +to provision Weppener and Ladybrand, and then make for the railroad +again. We'll strike it at Winburg most likely. It is an unholy sort +of hole, and I hear that the hotel serves watered ink and currant +jelly under the name of claret. We shall sit there and sip it, until +the train arrives, and then we shall entrain and come back again. +And this," he emphasized his words by plumping forward on his knees +once more; "and this is war!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but it lets us out on a longer leash than I have had for some +time," Weldon said serenely. "Anyway, it is well for you that it is +not likely to be a bloody campaign, for you'll be headed straight +away from Johannesburg, and I misdoubt me if Winburg holds a +hospital." +</P> + +<P> +"Judging from my past records, it will have to found one, then," +Carew answered composedly. "If I have to go through two hundred +miles of the enemy's country, they might as well open up, in +readiness for my coming. But what is the letter, old man?" +</P> + +<P> +"News. Yours had knocked it out of my mind, though. Mine comes off +later. Captain Frazer has been transferred to the South African +Light Horse, and will come up here as adjutant, on the first." +</P> + +<P> +Carew's face brightened. +</P> + +<P> +"That's good hearing. He will be higher still, before De Wet is +taken." "I hope so. Anyway, he is coming to us. Think of having him +about again!" +</P> + +<P> +"Much good will it do us! An adjutant doesn't mess with the +trooper." +</P> + +<P> +"Frazer will stick to his friends." +</P> + +<P> +"Mayhap. Still, better men than he have gone dizzy, as they went up +the ladder, and dizziness makes people look at what's above them, +rather than at what is below," Carew answered oracularly. "Frazer's +influence will be sound, and we shall feel it from one end of things +to the other. Aside From that, we aren't likely to be much affected +by his coming. Did Miss Dent tell any other news?" +</P> + +<P> +"As it happens, Miss Dent didn't tell me this." +</P> + +<P> +"Who, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"Captain Frazer, himself," Weldon answered, with a quiet relish of +his own victory. "He sends messages and all that to you." Then he +added, "And who else do you think is coming?" +</P> + +<P> +"With him?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +Carew shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I've no idea, unless Lord Kitchener is about to pay us a visit. +There were rumors of it, a week or so ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Guess again. It's a mightier than Lord Kitchener, this time." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't be." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. "It is, for it is a man trained to two weapons, who +has beaten his kettles into a helmet and his pepper-pot into a +cartridge-box." +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, Paddy. The Captain writes that he is thirsting for gore and +glory, and that he has learned to ride anything from a clotheshorse +to a nightmare." +</P> + +<P> +Carew laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy all over. He never could take things as they came." +</P> + +<P> +"Except Parrott's horse," Weldon suggested. +</P> + +<P> +"How did he get out of that scrape?" +</P> + +<P> +"Went out. There was talk of official vengeance; but Paddy vanished, +that same night. A week later, he turned up at the Captain's room in +Cape Town, with a bundle of clothes and a story that was as leaky as +a sieve. The Captain sent him out to Maitland to be licked into +shape, and this is the result." +</P> + +<P> +"No," Carew objected in a sudden burst of prophecy. "Mind my words, +Paddy has not resulted yet. That will come, later on in the game." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER SIXTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +Winburg may have all the elements of greatness; but greatness itself +is lacking. Nevertheless, after watching a convoy train tool along +over the green-flecked yellow veldt at the rate of six miles a day, +after seeing nothing but an occasional isolated farmhouse, the +little town appeared like a centre of civilization and excitement to +the bored troopers, as they rode up the main street and pitched camp +on the western edge of the town. There they sat and idly wondered +behind which particular hill was the largest commando. No type of +boredom is more acute than that which links itself with periods of +inaction in the army. Fifteen minutes would have sufficed to exhaust +the resources of Winburg; the troopers remained there for fifteen +days. Only Kruger Bobs was fully in his element. His daily grooming +of the broncho and his master once over, his time was his own, and +he employed it to the best of his ability. Fate had endowed Kruger +Bobs with a smile which won instant liking and gained instant +fulfilment of his wishes. Just as, months before, he had sat on the +river bank at Piquetberg Road, and grinned persuasively at the jam +tins, so now he ranged up and down among the farms scattered about +Winburg, and grinned himself into possession of manifold eggs and +plump fowls and even of soft wheat bread, the final luxury of the +biscuit-sated trooper who owned his fealty. +</P> + +<P> +"'Is thy servant a dog?'" Carew had quoted gravely at sight of his +first army biscuit. +</P> + +<P> +And Weldon had made answer,— +</P> + +<P> +"Not if he knows it. I have always had full sympathy with my hound +who leaves his dog-bread in favor of a bit of oak planking gnawed +out from his kennel floor." +</P> + +<P> +But Carew was less dainty. Nevertheless, he attacked the biscuit +with two flat stones, and mixed the debris with his coffee. +</P> + +<P> +Now, however, thanks to the efforts of Kruger Bobs, they were living +thriftily and upon the fat of the land. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you get it all, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon had demanded, one day. +"To my sure knowledge, you've no money, and people hereabouts don't +love the British. What is your secret?" +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs ducked his bristly head into his ragged hat, and gave an +explosive chuckle. Then he raised his head and scratched it +demurely. +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs just gits it, Boss," he explained comprehensively. +</P> + +<P> +He came in, the next night, his pockets stuffed, his mouth wide ajar +and the very whites of his eyes full of mystery. Carew and Weldon, +sitting together, glanced up as he appeared. Instantly, as he caught +sight of Carew, Kruger Bobs veiled his emotion and sought to become +properly nonchalant. Nevertheless, it was plain that he had tidings +to impart; and at length, over the top of Carew's head, he fell to +making graphic, yet totally unintelligible, signs to his master. +</P> + +<P> +"What in thunder do you want, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon demanded. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs heaved an ostentatious sigh, cast at Weldon one flashing +grin, and then asked dolorously,— +</P> + +<P> +"Me speak Boss out dere?" +</P> + +<P> +"What under heaven is the matter with you, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon +asked, as he departed on the heels of his serving man. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs slapped his thigh noiselessly, vanished behind his +smile, then reappeared to put his lips to Weldon's ear and whisper +in raucous triumph—"Syb down dere Winburg." +</P> + +<P> +"What? Who is Syb?" Weldon queried blankly. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs straightened, in dignified resentment at his master's +ignorance. +</P> + +<P> +"Syb be my vrouw soon." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see. No wonder you look elated, you rascal. So you have been +courting?" +</P> + +<P> +The grin reappeared. "Ya, Boss. More, too." +</P> + +<P> +"What now?" "Kruger Bobs got despatch from Syb for Boss." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's face expressed his amusement. +</P> + +<P> +"Much obliged to the lady. Give her mine." "Syb say—" Again the +thick black lips approached Weldon's ear, and the bristly head +nodded energetically in time to the moving lips. +</P> + +<P> +"Who?" Weldon said incredulously. "Miss Mellen?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ya, Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"How does Syb—Is that what you call her?—how does she know? Oh, I +remember now. It is the girl who served at Miss Mellen's home," +Weldon said, as light began to dawn. +</P> + +<P> +"Ya, Boss; dat Syb." +</P> + +<P> +"And she is here with Miss Mellen?" +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"What are they doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Dey is nurses sick mens." "How long have they been here?" +</P> + +<P> +"One, tree, five day." +</P> + +<P> +"Five days," Weldon translated to himself. "It was an odd chance, +your running on her so soon. Did she know we were here?" +</P> + +<P> +"She tink ya," Kruger Bobs replied. "Syb no tell." "But why not?" +</P> + +<P> +The matter-of-course question appeared to fill Kruger Bobs with +amazement. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss make night march," he answered. "She may not care to have me. +Still, we'll ride out there with you in the morning." +</P> + +<P> +"Boss?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Carew and myself." +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs looked hurt. In hot excitement, the black fingers closed +on a fold of the brown sleeve. +</P> + +<P> +"Kruger Bobs go, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you want to go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Syb dere, Boss." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see what difference that makes," Weldon said reflectively. +</P> + +<P> +Once more Kruger Bobs turned coy. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss go see his vrouw; me go see Syb," he explained briefly. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's laugh astonished him; still more Weldon's answer. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Kruger Bobs, you love-struck calf! Because you're in love with +Syb, do you think it follows that I am in love with Miss Mellen?" +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs plotted geometrical problems with his left toe. +</P> + +<P> +"Syb say," he replied at length. Then he raised his eyes from his +problem. "Boss vrouw good," he ventured persuasively. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed again. +</P> + +<P> +"So we all think. Mr. Carew knows her much better than I do, though, +and Miss Mellen would be hurt, if he didn't go out to see her." +</P> + +<P> +But Kruger Bobs stood his ground. "Boss Weldon go see his vrouw; +Kruger Bobs go see his vrouw; Boss Carew no vrouw." +</P> + +<P> +However, in spite of the advice of Kruger Bobs, Carew was at +Weldon's side, as they rode through Winburg, the next morning. +</P> + +<P> +Already the country was taking on the look of summer, and the dusty +stretches of veldt were tinged here and there with thin patches of +growing green. Over the hills nearest the town were scattered the +lines of ruined trenches, still littered here and there with rusty +tools dropped there by the Boers when, long months before, they had +caught sight of the advancing armies of French and Hutton. As they +drew nearer, Weldon could make out the familiar details of a field +hospital: the low white tents in their circle of whitewashed stones, +the Red-Cross nurses hurrying to and fro and the blue-coated +convalescents strolling leisurely about the enclosure. Carew, +meanwhile, had pushed forward. Above the P. M. O.'s tent fluttered +the Red Cross, and he had caught sight of a white apron and a +scarlet cape in the open door. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Mellen! Alice!" +</P> + +<P> +In the still air of a summer noon, Carew's voice carried distinctly +back to Weldon. He glanced towards the tent. Then, beckoning to +Kruger Bobs, he turned and rode away to inspect the distant +landscape. +</P> + +<P> +An hour later, Kruger Bobs was squatting on the ground, a heaped +plate on his knees and a smile of rapture surrounding his smacking +lips. Near him, the three horses munched contentedly, stamping +lightly now and then and whisking their tails to drive off the +buzzing flies. Outside the door of the tent, Alice Mellen sat on a +bench, with Carew at her side and Weldon sprawling lazily on the +ground at her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Twenty-seven inside," she told them. "It is mostly enteric and S. +C., men who have been sent here from Bloemfontein. Their hospitals +are overcrowded. We have both sorts here, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"Nursing Boers?" Carew asked, disapprovingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? They are men, plucky men, too, some of them. I rather like +the race. Anyway, it makes an interesting mixture. We have had to +put them all together, and they get on capitally, exchanging stories +and gossip and sympathy like men of the same company. One of them, a +Boer,—" she hesitated for the right word; then she adopted the +vernacular of the service—"went out, the other day; and, among his +mourners, the sincerest ones were the two London Tommies in the two +next beds. War isn't all hatred, by any means. Turn nurse for a +month and you'll find it out." +</P> + +<P> +"Or else turn patient," Carew interpolated quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Her color came; but she only turned more directly to Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +"I was glad to come here for a change," she added. "Shall you stay +here long?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is impossible to tell. The other nurses here are younger at it +than I, and there are some hard cases. If it were not for Syb, I +should be at my wits' end sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"Then ought you to stay here?" Carew urged, with a sudden assumption +of proprietorship which sat well upon him. +</P> + +<P> +She faced him with a smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but this is nothing in comparison with Johannesburg. There the +work is agonizing. Between wounds and enteric, the place is crammed, +and we can't get the nurses we absolutely need. My mother thought I +was growing too tired, and she sent Syb up here to take care of me. +Instead, I have pressed her into the service and trained her until +she is one of the best nurses I have ever had under me. The men +adore her, she is so strong and so full of her queer, jolly fun." +</P> + +<P> +With his head pillowed on his arms, Weldon lay watching her +thoughtfully. Under her piles of inky hair, her face looked thin, +and the shadows lay heavy around her eyes. Nevertheless, the eyes +were shining and the curves of the lips were all upward. Plainly the +day had brought her a tonic; yet the past six months had told upon +the girl pitilessly. +</P> + +<P> +"But, for God's sake, when is it all to end?" he burst out suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Tired of the service, Mr. Weldon?" she asked gravely, but with no +accent of reproach. +</P> + +<P> +"Not tired of my own. But the worst of it all comes back on you +women, and that is maddening." +</P> + +<P> +She smiled down at him, and the light in her eyes deepened and grew +yet more womanly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is all we can do to help, Mr. Weldon. Let us take what share we +can. The work is hard, hard and discouraging; but—" involuntarily +she glanced at Carew's happy, handsome face; "but now and then it +brings its own reward." +</P> + +<P> +The short silence was broken only by Kruger Bobs, scraping his spoon +along his fast-emptying plate. Then Alice spoke again. +</P> + +<P> +"You hear often from Cooee, Mr. Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Now and then. Not often." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you know that she may come to us, after Christmas?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," he said alertly. "To Johannesburg?" +</P> + +<P> +She nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"We need her, and my aunt has almost given her consent. The need +grows greater, every day; we can't hold out much longer, unless we +can have more help. Cooee isn't trained at all; but she has endless +tact and she knows how to take orders. Unless January brings us +fewer patients, I think she will come north for a month." "Does she +wish to?" +</P> + +<P> +Alice laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"As a matter of mere conscience. Cooee hates lint and disinfectants +and the hush of things; but she begins to see the need before her. +She makes all manner of fun of me, and of the whole hospital scheme +of things; but still I think she will come. My aunt opposes it; but +we are trying to compromise on a month. That won't wear Cooee out, +and the novelty will last for that length of time, and help keep up +her enthusiasm." +</P> + +<P> +"Did you know Captain Frazer is coming up, in a week or two?" +</P> + +<P> +For an instant, Alice's eyes clouded. +</P> + +<P> +"No. When did you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just as I left camp. The appointment took him quite by surprise, +and he wrote to me at once," Weldon answered with quiet dignity, for +he was not slow to read the question in the girl's mind. +</P> + +<P> +Her face cleared. +</P> + +<P> +"I hadn't heard. Cooee's last letter is three weeks old, so it +couldn't bring the news." Then she glanced over her shoulder, as one +of the doctors halted on the threshold. "Am I needed?" +</P> + +<P> +"Young Walpole is just going," he said gravely. "He has asked for +you." +</P> + +<P> +Both men rose to their feet. It was Carew, however, who lingered. +</P> + +<P> +"We are leaving Winburg, to-morrow, so this is good by," he said +regretfully. "Take care of yourself, Alice, and bless you!" And, +underneath its happiness, his boyish face was unusually grave, as he +mounted and rode away at Weldon's side. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap17"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +Christmas morning found the camp at Lindley wakening to a general +atmosphere of peace and good will to man. Scarcely fifty miles away +at Tweefontein, De Wet's midnight charge had left behind it sixty +men sleeping their last grim sleep in defiance of the peace ordained +for the Christmas dawn. And, midway between the camp of the living +and the line of the dead, there lay the little town of Bethlehem. +</P> + +<P> +After the frosty night, the day came, hot and clear, with the sun +beating down from a cloudless sky and the mirage dancing upon the +distant horizon. To the men from the north, it was a bit of a shock +to exchange Christmas greetings, while the thermometer went sliding +up to the mark of one hundred degrees. Nevertheless, they hailed one +another lustily, and threw themselves into the spirit of the holiday +feast with the zest of schoolboys. +</P> + +<P> +For full three months now, the greater number of the troopers had +been dodging up and down over the surface of the Orange River Colony +on the heels of the tireless De Wet. After accomplishing forty +futile miles a day, after subsisting chiefly upon army biscuits and +bully beef, they had earned their right to rest. This, at least, was +the opinion of their adjutant. +</P> + +<P> +All the day before, there had been flying rumors of a forced march +on the following morning; but no orders had been given, and just at +nightfall had come the definite announcement that no move would be +made until after Christmas. Those who had seen their adjutant going +away from the colonel's tent, half an hour before, were able to draw +their own conclusions. The rest accepted the fact as it stood, and +made no effort to account for the change in their plans. It was +enough for them that two thousand sheep were to be roasted, to the +end that every man might eat his fill; and they took an eager hand, +next morning, in scooping out the ant-hill and kindling the fires +inside. Then, seated on the ground, they spun their yarns while they +waited until the white-hot earth on top of the hill gave notice that +the oven was ready for the roast. +</P> + +<P> +Carew, meanwhile, was unpacking the neat little parcel which had +come to him with Christmas greeting from the Daughters of the +Empire. Lined up for inspection before breakfast, every trooper had +received an exactly similar parcel; every one had given expression +to his thankful heart; then every one had gone away to inspect the +offering. +</P> + +<P> +"This is kind of the ladies, very kind," Carew was observing, with a +perfectly grave face, as he drew out a handkerchief of spotty red +cotton and a khaki-colored nightcap. "Look, Weldon! These fit my +complexion to a charm, and will be wonderfully warm and comfortable. +What is in your grab bag?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ditto, apparently," Weldon answered. "I think I shall keep these to +sport about at home in." +</P> + +<P> +Carew shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, no. The kind ladies wish us to use them now, and you should +accept the gift according to the spirit in which it is given." +Taking off his wide felt hat, he replaced it with the wool nightcap, +covered the nightcap with the handkerchief and then put on the hat +over all the rest. "And what have we here?" he continued. "A pipe? +Oh, the naughty ladies! Cigarettes?" He smelled at them gingerly, +then sneezed into a corner of the scarlet kerchief. "Matches, +shoelaces, and, by George, a cake of soap! Now, if we only had a +farmer's almanac and a flannel chest-protector, we'd be quite +complete." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed. Then he beckoned to a little trooper standing beside +the nearest ant-hill. +</P> + +<P> +"Paddy," he said gravely; "these toys are excellent toys. If +anything should happen to me, I'll will them to you." +</P> + +<P> +Paddy thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his own nightcap and +dangled it by its khaki-colored tip. +</P> + +<P> +"And look at it!" he said slowly. "The spirit is willing and full of +peace; but what would I be doing with that thing, I who never had a +hat on my head till I was ten years old, let alone a cap?" +</P> + +<P> +"Wrap your feet in it, then," Carew suggested. "It's large enough +for them both. Paddy, who eats at your ant-hill?" +</P> + +<P> +The little Irishman winked knowingly. +</P> + +<P> +"Them as invites theirselves, first off. If it's you and Mr. Weldon, +so much the better for Paddy. The rum ration is doubled, the day; +knowing the habits of you both, I'm thinking I see my way to getting +six times gloriously drunk. There's beer by the hogshead, too. It'll +be a mighty Christmas dinner, the first in years I've eaten without +cooking." +</P> + +<P> +"You generally eat it raw?" Carew questioned blandly. +</P> + +<P> +"Praised be Patrick, no; but it's Paddy who has done the cooking. +This year, I am free from my pots and kettles, and can eat with the +best of them. Little Canuck dear, don't ever enlist as a cook. +Nothing spoils the stomach of you like the smell of the warming +broth." +</P> + +<P> +"You like the change, then, Paddy?" Weldon asked, as he thriftily +packed up his parcel and stowed it away in his pocket, with an eye +to the gratitude of Kruger Bobs. +</P> + +<P> +"Like, is it? I rejoice greatly and shout, as the Book bids us. It's +a man's work I'm doing now; it's with men that I am doing that work, +and it's a man who leads me on to do that work, meaning Captain +Frazer." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is the Captain now?" +</P> + +<P> +Paddy dropped down on the ground, midway between his friends and his +ant-hill. +</P> + +<P> +"Over yonder, doing the work of an honest man and a warrior." +</P> + +<P> +"That goes without saying. What now?" +</P> + +<P> +But Paddy chose to speak in metaphors. +</P> + +<P> +"He's thrown down his sword and picked up his bottle," he responded +enigmatically. +</P> + +<P> +"Not drinking?" Weldon asked incredulously. +</P> + +<P> +"No, little one; not doing, but doing by. He's administering advice +and physic to them cormyrants of Queenslanders. The Colonials are a +hard race to manage and a greedy." Paddy spoke with an accent of +extreme disfavor. +</P> + +<P> +"What have the poor Queenslanders done?" +</P> + +<P> +"Poor it is; not poor in spirit, but poor in judgment. They've +converted the top course of their dinner into the bottom course of +their breakfast, and now they're suffering according. Next time, +when their kyind officers order them up, each a little Crosse and +Blackwell plum pudding, they'll know enough to eat them up hot on a +full stomach, not bolt them down cold on top of a lone layer of +dog-bread. Man is permitted to make such errors but once in his life, +without having Providence get after him and slay him. Little +Canuck?" "Paddy?" +</P> + +<P> +"The top of the ant-hill is white with heat, and the lambie must +enter the roasting tomb. Will you and Mr. Carew eat with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"We've no intention of eating anywhere else, Paddy. We know your +cooking of old." +</P> + +<P> +"It's an honor you'll be doing me, then. And, moreover—" Paddy +hesitated, with the words sticking to his lips. +</P> + +<P> +"What now?" +</P> + +<P> +"Think you the Captain—I mean the Adjutant; but he'll always be the +Captain to me—would he take it amiss, think you, little one, if I +sent him a bit of the joint, for the sake of old times? He'll like +be eating truffled ostrich and locust sauce at the mess; but Paddy'd +like to have a hand in his Christmas dinner. It's all I can do for +him, and he's done much for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Try him and see, Paddy," Weldon advised. "If I know Captain Frazer, +he'll have nothing to-day that will please him more." +</P> + +<P> +With feasting and story-telling and the inevitable letters to wife +and sweetheart, the sunshiny day lost itself in twilight and the +twilight in the chill of night. Along the line of the blockhouses +for miles away, lights began to twinkle out from the narrow +loopholes. Throughout the camp, answering lights twinkled back at +them till the night was spotted thick with dots of yellow, winking +up at the yellow stars above. And around the camp and the +blockhouses lay the dark, measureless veldt, and the veldt was very +still. +</P> + +<P> +Stillness was not in the camp, however. Even the gluttonous +Queenslanders had recovered from their woes of the morning; and, +from end to end of the great enclosure, there was a spirit of +merrymaking born of the feast day, the dinner and the unwonted +allowance of rum. In the groups scattered about the camp fires, +tongues wagged freely of home, of boyhood, of adventures in past +years. War talk was tabooed that night. According to his custom, +Tommy ignored the present and ranged at large over the remote past +and yet remoter future. +</P> + +<P> +Carew, with the easy adaptability which marked him, was the central +figure of one of the groups where he acted as a species of +toastmaster, to direct the trend of the stories and lead the +singing. Weldon sat slightly apart, watching the firelit group +before him, while his mind trailed lazily to and fro, from home, +with its holly wreaths in the windows, to Cape Town where the +flower-boxes edging a wide veranda would be a mass of geranium +blossoms now, and where, in the shady western end, would sit a tall +girl with hair the color of the yellow flame. Strangely enough, to +his honest, straightforward mind it never occurred to doubt that she +was thinking of him, sending a Christmas wish in his direction. More +than once she had given proof of her liking for him, her interest in +his concerns. Her blue eyes had met his eyes steadily, kindly. +Weldon had certain old-fashioned notions of womanhood which not all +of his social life had been able to beat out of him. Far back in his +boyhood, his mother, still a social leader at home, had told him it +was unmanly to flirt. A good and loyal woman would have no share in +flirtation; women of the other sort could have no share in his life. +Weldon was no Galahad. He had danced and dined with many women, had +given sympathy to some, chaff to others; nevertheless, his relations +with them had been curiously direct and simple. Quite unconsciously +to himself, his mother's code had become ingrained in the very fibre +of his being. And now he was ready to stand or fall by his judgment +that Ethel Dent, Cooee as he called her in his secret heart, was as +good and loyal as a woman could be. The future seemed to him so +obvious that he made no effort to forecast it. He was content to +wait. +</P> + +<P> +"Christmas is nearly over, Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +He roused himself abruptly, as Captain Frazer dropped down at his +side. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes; but the revel will outlast the day," he answered, laughing. +"Tommy is in his glory now, and it will take more than taps to make +him subside." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. He has rioted most joyously. Christmas has been no empty +mockery to him." Weldon's quick ear detected a ring of melancholy in +the Captain's voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Has it to you?" +</P> + +<P> +The Captain sat silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the winking +fires. +</P> + +<P> +"Not really. Of course, we all have been a bit homesick, and I can +see no shame in confessing it. Besides, after one gets out of his +windsor-tie stage of life, these especial holidays seem to mark time +so. One thinks back to this time, last year; and one has to wonder a +bit where he will be, a year from now. A good deal can happen in a +year." +</P> + +<P> +"For better, or for worse," Weldon added. +</P> + +<P> +The words caught the Captain's ear. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, for better or for worse," he repeated; "in sickness and in +health. A year is a long time. Tell me, have you heard lately from +Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +Long afterwards, the question came back to Weldon, with the obvious +association of ideas. Now he answered, with perfect unconcern,— +</P> + +<P> +"Not for three or four weeks." +</P> + +<P> +"I have heard since you, then. She wrote, last week, and sent +greeting to you and Mr. Carew." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you. Give mine back to her; that is, if you are writing." +</P> + +<P> +"I shall write, to-night," the Captain said briefly. +</P> + +<P> +"Then please send her my wishes for Christmas and New Year's both. +You might also remind her to write to me. She writes wonderfully +good letters." Turning his eyes from the fire, the Captain watched +him steadily for a moment. Unconscious of his companion's gaze, +Weldon was staring out across the camp, his lips framed to a +noiseless whistling, his face full of dreamy content. The Captain +studied the happy, resolute young face, drew a deep breath and then +turned to the fire once more. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he assented. "But you would know that, from hearing her +talk." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly, Weldon's lips straightened, and he faced the Captain +directly. +</P> + +<P> +"I like Miss Dent," he said frankly. "Of course, you know that. But, +moreover, I have always felt I owed her a debt of gratitude for +introducing me to you. I know one doesn't usually say such things, +Captain Frazer," he laughed, in sudden boyish embarrassment; "but it +is a little different on Christmas night, you know. Next year, we +may be miles apart, and so, if you don't mind, I'd like to say that +you have been wonderfully good to me, this year, and that I +appreciate it." +</P> + +<P> +Captain Frazer took the outstretched hand, slim, but hard now, and a +bit stubby about the nails. +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you, Weldon," he answered. "This may be our only Christmas +together, and I am glad you told me." +</P> + +<P> +The silence about them was broken by the voices of the soldiers +singing around the camp fires and by the bagpipes playing somewhere +across the distance. Then, after a little, they fell to talking of +other things, with the natural antipathy of healthy men to any +recurrence of a momentary outburst of sentiment. +</P> + +<P> +Around them, the fires flared and flamed across the darkness; beyond +them, the veldt stretched away, sinister, mysterious; and from above +the stars twinkled down upon them, smiling a Christmas blessing +alike on those who were doomed to glory and those who were doomed to +death. For an instant, the sudden pause in the singing and laughter +seemed typical of the short, sudden pause in their active lives. +Then, as the Captain rose, the singing broke out once more, Carew's +voice leading. +</P> + +<P> +"Good-night, Weldon. I must go back to my quarters." +</P> + +<P> +"And to your letters?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, to my letters. And may next Christmas be good to us both!" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon rose and saluted, then stood looking after his companion as +he walked away, head and shoulders erect and his lips smiling +slightly, as if in anticipation of the task before him. And, +meanwhile, from the fire near by came the lusty chorus,— +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "A little brown cot, a shady green spot,<BR> + No happier home I find.<BR> + My heart's fairly gone, for I love only one,<BR> + She's the gi-irl I le-eft behind."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The voices, rollicking even in their sentimentality, dropped away +into silence; the fire flared up and then suddenly died away into +darkness. But, even in the darkness, Weldon could see the dim +outline of the Captain's figure, moving steadily forward along his +self-appointed way. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap18"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN +</H3> + +<P> +Lord Kitchener, one night in early February, was sitting on the apex +of a vast triangle in the northern end of the Orange River Colony. +Two sides of the triangle were made up of long lines of blockhouses, +strung on a chain of barbed-wire fencing. The blockhouses were of +loop-holed stone or iron with iron roofs, and they were separated +from each other by only a few hundred yards. The barbed-wire chain +which strung together these zigzag lines was five strands wide, and +it was edged with a five-foot trench and now and then with an +additional length of stone wall. Beyond the fences were the railroad +lines, and up and down over the tracks armored trains carrying +search-lights were running to and fro, to shed all possible light +upon the fences and upon the enclosure beyond. The third side of the +triangle consisted of an infinite number of men in khaki, and its +density varied entirely according to its position. At first, it +opened out to a thin line of troopers scattered over the arc of an +immense circle; then it drew in until an army stood in fighting +array straight across the veldt from Heilbron to Kroonstad. And +Wolvehoek was the apex of the triangle. +</P> + +<P> +Experience had taught the master brain of the British army that it +was useless longer to chase De Wet up and down over the face of the +earth. The Boer general was familiar with every crack and cranny of +that earth. He knew where to hide, where to dodge, where to scurry +away as fast as his convoy train could bear him company. Behind him, +plucky, but totally in ignorance of the natural advantages of the +country, toiled and perspired and skirmished the British army. +Horses were exhausted, men were killed and supply wagons were +captured, all to little or no purpose. If the quarry could not be +taken by direct pursuit, it was needful to have recourse to the +methods of the ranch. Pursuit failing, it was time for a round-up. +</P> + +<P> +To this end, the Orange River Colony had been marked off into +sections by the rows of blockhouses strung upon barbed wire. Drive +after drive had been made into these enclosures; and every drive had +brought its bag of game. But still the general himself had eluded +them. Early in February, however, a giant drive had been planned, +directed away from the enclosure in order that, once De Wet took +refuge in his usual trick of doubling back upon his pursuers, he +should find himself caught in the open trap. And, secure in the +ultimate success of his plan, Lord Kitchener waited at Wolvehoek in +expectation of its end. +</P> + +<P> +The drive had been made, De Wet had doubled, and now the base of the +triangle was flowing in upon him, fully confident of success at +last. And the base was in part made up of the South African Light +Horse, and Carew and Weldon were of that Horse, and they rejoiced +accordingly. +</P> + +<P> +Nightfall of the sixth found the quarry well inside the triangle, +and the South African Light Horse drawn up in a straight line +running westward from Lindley. The officers slept in their boots, +that night, and every trooper held himself tense in his blankets, +ready to cease snoring at an instant's notice. And far away to the +northward, the moving search-lights carved the frosty darkness with +their blinding cones of light. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon was ordered out on picket duty, that night. All day long, he +had ridden hard, until even the zeal of Piggie had begun to flag. +Nevertheless, as the broad stripe of yellow reluctantly died out of +the western sky, his excited brain denied to his tired muscles the +sleep which they demanded. Accordingly, it was a relief when his +orders came, and he found himself advancing cautiously out into the +shadowy veldt. +</P> + +<P> +Contrary to his usual mood when on picket, Weldon had no sense of +loneliness, that night. Reaching away from him on either hand was +the huge enclosing wall of humanity, pacing to and fro on picket +duty, guarding the blockhouses, patrolling the wire fences between. +Every man was alert to his duty; every nerve was taut with the +consciousness that somewhere within the cordon was the leader who +heretofore had escaped them, that each man was a link forged in the +endless chain which was stretched around the invisible enemy. And, +meanwhile, the starless sky and the waiting chain were equally +silent and equally freighted with mystery. And the future seemed +full of portent and very near. +</P> + +<P> +Then, as the midnight hour swung past him, Weldon heard the rustle +of a quiet footfall. It was Captain Frazer's voice that answered his +challenge. +</P> + +<P> +"I was looking for you, Weldon," he added. +</P> + +<P> +"For anything especial?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I felt restless and couldn't sleep, so I thought I would go the +round of the pickets. They said you were out here. Where is Carew?" +</P> + +<P> +"In my sleeping-bag. I don't encourage him for a neighbor just now. +He draws too much fire." +</P> + +<P> +The Captain laughed softly. +</P> + +<P> +"He is an unlucky beggar. Eight, nine, how many times is it that he +has been hit? He ought to engage a private nurse." +</P> + +<P> +"He has." And Weldon explained the little scene at the door of the +hospital tent. +</P> + +<P> +"Happy fellow! He deserves her, though. But it is an ideal +combination, that of nurse and soldier," the Captain answered +lightly. Then he asked, "What sort of a day have you had?" +</P> + +<P> +"Rousing. Now the question is: what sort of a night are we going to +have?" +</P> + +<P> +"The night of our lives, I suspect," the Captain replied, still in +the low tone in which all their talk had been made. "The orders are +to close in at daylight, and work the game up towards Wolvehoek; +but, if I know anything at all of De Wet, he won't wait till +daylight." +</P> + +<P> +"You think he will fight?" +</P> + +<P> +"If he does, it will be a fight to the finish," the Captain said +gravely. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's grip tightened on his rifle. +</P> + +<P> +"When will it come?" +</P> + +<P> +"Heaven only knows. Probably just before light. He will take this +end of things, on account of avoiding the railroads and—" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's hand shut on his arm. +</P> + +<P> +"Hush! What's that?" +</P> + +<P> +Swiftly the Captain's gravity vanished, and he laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"By George, here they are!" he exclaimed. +</P> + +<P> +From the veldt to the northward, there came a confused din of +rushing, trampling feet; a cloud of dust, lifted on the night +breeze, swept down upon them; and then a herd of stampeding cattle +dashed madly past, noses to earth and tails lashing in furious fear. +An instant later, the darkness to the left was shattered by dots of +light, and the air snapped with the double crack of Mauser rifles. +Far to the northward, though muffled by distance, there was more +firing, and yet more; and ever the moving searchlights carved their +way to and fro through the inky night. +</P> + +<P> +Like a dog on the scent and ready for the plunge, Captain Frazer had +straightened to the full of his height and stood tense, waiting an +instant to measure the scope of the coming fight. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a row, sure enough; and thank God, I'm in it!" he said quietly +then. "Come back to the line, Weldon. There'll be work for us all, +in a few minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Even as he spoke, and while they were hurrying back to the squadron, +a random shot pierced the darkness just before them, and a bullet +whirred close above their heads. Another shot tossed up a spray of +dust at their feet, and a third fell full in the tent where Carew +was swiftly tightening his belts and assuring himself that his +bandoliers were full. +</P> + +<P> +They found the camp already humming like a hive of angry bees. A +small matter of forty miles a day counted for nothing to men wakened +from heavy sleep to face the firing of an invisible foe. There was +no need of the murmured report that De Wet had bidden his followers +break through the British chain wherever its links were weakest. +Instinctively each man threw himself into fighting array, convinced +that the present minute marked the climax of the past days. +</P> + +<P> +And, meanwhile, the limitless darkness shut down over the determined +cordon of British men facing steadily inward towards the foe which +they could not see; over the scattered knots of Boer horsemen, +secure in their full knowledge of every yard of the ground, riding +forward to fight their way through the chain into the veldt beyond. +And, far to the northward, De Wet was lurking in shadow long enough +to cut the wires and then ride away with his trio of faithful +followers. +</P> + +<P> +To Weldon, fresh from the darkness and silence of the open veldt, it +seemed as if, of a sudden, the frosty night were tattered into +shreds. As the fight waxed hot about him, he lost all memory of the +intermediate stages. At one instant, all had been still and dim; at +another, the air before him was thick with vivid rifle flashes, his +ears were full of the strident din of flying bullets, of shouting +men, of squealing, moaning horses. For a time, he could see nothing +of the enemy but the flashing dots of fire. Then the dots drew +nearer, closed up, and the din was increased by the rattle of fixing +bayonets, by the dull, sucking sound of steel prodded into soft +masses, and by the thud of falling bodies. And always from the outer +circle the pitiless rain of bullets came splashing down upon them, +striking impartially on friend and on foe. +</P> + +<P> +Side by side in the foremost rank, Weldon and Carew were fighting +like tigers. Carew's cheek was gashed by a passing bullet, and +Weldon's coat showed dark and wet over his left shoulder; but +neither man was conscious of pain, or of fear, or of anything else +than a surly determination to check the maddening rush before them. +Carew was slashing about him with all the strength of arm and +bayonet; but Weldon, disdaining his bayonet, was firing with a +steady aim which sent one man and then another to join the heap on +the ground at his feet. +</P> + +<P> +A second bullet grazed his wrist, and a horseman swept down upon +him. For an instant, he wavered. Then he straightened his shoulders +and took careful aim. From ten feet away, he had heard a ringing +order, and the order had been given, not in the voice of his own +captain, but in that of Captain Frazer who, as ranking officer, had +taken command of the fight into which chance had led him. Weldon's +every nerve answered to the tonic of that voice. Not since +Vlaakfontein had he been under its command. Nevertheless, the old +spell was upon him, and he responded to its call. An instant before, +the rush towards him had seemed indomitable. Those furious, fighting +horsemen could not be stayed in their course. Now he braced himself +for the shock of their coming, while tired hand and blurring eye +roused themselves to do the bidding of his brain. He was dimly aware +that Paddy had struggled forward to his other side and, shoulder to +shoulder with him, was helping to beat back the iron-like force +pressing down upon them. Then, with the keen grasp of trifling +detail which often marks the supreme moment of mental exhaustion, he +became conscious that the hairy tail which brushed across his face +was unduly coarse and tangled, while a sudden cheer from around him +told that the Boers were turning in flight. +</P> + +<P> +Dazed, he drew his hand across his face, and stared wonderingly at +the scarlet drops on his fingers. Then he turned and looked down at +Paddy with a whimsical, questioning smile. Paddy repeated his query. +</P> + +<P> +"Are you hurt, little one?" he demanded, for the second time, as he +shook Weldon's arm. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon steadied at the touch. +</P> + +<P> +"No; only scratched a bit. It is nothing to last at all. Are you all +right?" +</P> + +<P> +Paddy shut his hand over a shattered finger. +</P> + +<P> +"Glory be! And the snakes of Boers is wriggling off to their holes. +And now, where's the Captain?" +</P> + +<P> +They found him a little apart from the line, slightly to the front +and close beside a scattered heap of bearded men. His face was white +and the lines of his face were rigid and drawn; but he hailed them +just as he always had been used to do. +</P> + +<P> +"My luck has changed," he added quietly. "They have taken my leg, +this time. Still, it's not so very painful. I'll fill my pipe first, +and then will you two fellows help me back, till we can find an +ambulance?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap19"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER NINETEEN +</H3> + +<P> +In a quiet corner of the crowded hospital at Johannesburg, one +narrow bed was screened away from its neighbors. Beside the bed sat +Ethel Dent, and Weldon leaned against the wall beyond. Both of them +were smiling bravely down into the dark-fringed blue eyes which met +their eyes with a steady wishfulness. With the end so plain in +sight, why keep up the pretence of being blind to its approach? +</P> + +<P> +An operation had been the final chance, and the chance had failed. +Out from the stupor of ether, out from the hours of bewildering +pain, Captain Frazer had come back to an interval of full +consciousness, of fuller knowledge that, for him, this painless +interval was but the prelude to the final painless sleep. +Nevertheless, the man who had helped other men to die unflinchingly +was facing death with a grave, unflinching smile, albeit life to him +was good and full of promise. The interval was short. He would pass +through it in manlike fashion, and, meanwhile, give thanks that +beside his bed sat the one woman in whom his whole future so long +had centered. +</P> + +<P> +The slow moments passed by, unheeded. It was an hour since the +surgeons had gone away; it was nearly an hour since Alice Mellen had +followed the surgeons. Instinctively she realized that her place was +otherwhere. There was no need now for skilled nurses. Ethel could do +all the little which would be required, and it was Ethel's right to +stay. +</P> + +<P> +Since Alice had left them, no word had been spoken. The Captain had +little strength for words as yet. It was taking all his energy and +courage to face the truth and to accept it. Only an hour before, his +crippled career had seemed to him unbearable. Now, as he lay with +his eyes fixed on the girl beside him, he realized how much of +potential sweetness that dreary alternative had held. And yet, Fate +had drawn him into the battle, and it was something that he had met +Fate bravely and in the foremost rank. So far, he had never funked a +fight; if it took his last bit of strength, he would go pluckily +through this last, worse fight which he was destined to face. He +stirred slightly, and shut his teeth on his lower lip; but his eyes +never dropped from Ethel's face. From the farther side of the bed, +Weldon, too, was watching Ethel. If he lived to full fivescore +years, he could never forget her face as he had met her at the +hospital door, that morning. Exhausted with the excitement of the +battle, stiff with his half-dressed wounds, soiled and untidy and +haggard, he had paused beside the ambulance while the attendants had +lifted the stretcher and borne the Captain up the low flight of +steps. Then, like a man in a dream, he had followed along behind +them until, on the very threshold, he had raised his heavy eyes to +see Ethel standing before him, a broad shaft of sunshine pouring +down upon her to rest in the locks of sunshiny hair which straggled +out from beneath her crisp white cap. +</P> + +<P> +"Cooee!" he said huskily, as he took her hand. Then, for the first +time in all those terrible hours since the battle, his lips had +quivered, and two big, boyish tears had rolled out across his +cheeks. +</P> + +<P> +Already the fight seemed to him to be months old. From the first, it +had been the Captain's wish that Weldon should go with him to the +hospital, and Weldon would have allowed no other man to go in his +place. Wounded and weak from loss of blood, nevertheless he forgot +his own weakness as he saw the leg, shattered by two bullets, +explosive bullets such as are denied to warfare of any but barbarous +nations. Young though he was, Weldon had seen many a man wounded +before now. He was not slow to realize the nature of the +alternatives which lay before the man who was at once his hero and +his friend. Mercifully, he had as yet no knowledge how soon the one +alternative must be taken from him. +</P> + +<P> +The case was too grave a one for the surgeons of the field hospital. +In after years, that ambulance journey into Kroonstad seemed branded +upon Weldon's memory: the baking heat of the February sun, the +interminable miles of dusty road stretching away between other +interminable miles of grassy veldt, scarred and seamed here and +there with ridges of naked rock. And at last the ambulance had +jogged into Kroonstad, only to find that no help lay in the hospital +there, that the journey must be dragged onward through a night ride +to Johannesburg. +</P> + +<P> +If the jolting, crawling ambulance had been bad, the jarring train +was infinitely worse. The Captain made no complaints; he was +grateful for every slight attention; he even forced himself to joke +a little now and then. Nevertheless, Weldon, sitting beside him and +occasionally laying his own fingers across the steady hand on the +blanket, was maddened by the noise of the engine, by the ceaseless +thud, thud as the wheels took every new rail, by the roar, and the +rush, and the dust which filtered in upon them. There was nothing he +could do. He merely sat there beside his friend, and thought. +Occasionally, he thought of Ethel; but, for the most part, his mind +was on the man before him, the man whose active career all at once +had been cut in two. Now and then he thought of the one who had +chosen to fire those bullets, taboo of all but the most brutal +warfare. At such times, he rose and fell to pacing restlessly up and +down the car. Then he controlled himself and resumed his seat. +</P> + +<P> +Moment by moment, almost second by second, the dreary night had worn +away. It was full morning when the train had halted inside the +familiar station. After his vigil, the healthy stir of the streets +appeared to Weldon like the confused picture of a dream, and it had +been like a man in a dream that he had been driven away to the +hospital. Then, on the steps, he had seen Ethel, and the dream had +been shattered, giving way, for the instant, to the perfect +happiness of reality. +</P> + +<P> +But the surgeons at Johannesburg had shaken their heads. The delay, +although unavoidable, had been full of danger. One only chance +remained, and they would take that chance. Weldon had lingered until +he was ordered away; then, with Ethel beside him, he had gone to +find a doctor who could dress his own wounds and make him fit to +face the ordeal which he knew was awaiting him. For one short +moment, he had felt Ethel's hands busy about his shoulder and head +and wrist, had rejoiced in the quiet strength of their soothing +touch. For another moment, their eyes had met; but no word had been +spoken between them. Then Alice had come to them, bringing the +surgeon's verdict. That had been an hour before. Now they still were +there, watching the slow approach of the inevitable summons. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly the day waxed—and waned. For the waning life, there was no +interval of waxing. Slowly, steadily, by infinitesimal degrees, Leo +Frazer was sinking down into the Valley of the Shadow. Once the head +surgeon had stepped behind the screens and bent over the bed. Only +Ethel had seen the brief contraction of his brows; but no one of +them was deceived by his cheery words of parting. And still the blue +eyes rested upon Ethel, as if seeking to gain from her the answer to +some unspoken question, as if begging her to share with him some +fraction of her quiet strength. Now and then Ethel wondered at her +own quiet. This was the second week of her promised month with her +cousin; but it was the first time she had come face to face with +death, the first time, too, that her work had taken on any hint of +personality. Now, suddenly confronted with these three, Death and +the two men who, during the past fourteen months, had played so +active parts in her life, she was surprised to find that she faced +them steadily and in silence. As yet, she felt no wish to make any +moan. That would come later, when her nerves had relaxed a little +from the stretching strain. And, meanwhile, as she sat watching the +face on the pillow, grieving for the waning life, now and then she +raised her eyes to the other face on the opposite side of the bed, +and told herself that Fate, harsh as it was, was yet not altogether +unpitying. Although wounded and worn and sick at heart, Weldon was +with her, and intensely alive. +</P> + +<P> +"Ethel!" +</P> + +<P> +Bending forward, she laid her strong, firm hand upon the hand of the +Captain, noting, as she did so, that the finger tips were cold to +her own warm touch. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes?" she said gently. +</P> + +<P> +"You are here? It troubles me to see. Stay with me to the end, +Ethel. It won't be so very long." +</P> + +<P> +She bowed her head; but the answer came firmly. +</P> + +<P> +"I will stay." +</P> + +<P> +There was a short silence. Then, gathering together all his +strength, the Captain went on quite steadily,— +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be so very long, Ethel. I am sorry. I liked to live. I +have had a good time, and I had no idea that my good times were so +nearly over. Not that it would have made much difference, though. +And yet, when one comes to the end, all of a sudden, one finds a +great many things that are left unfinished." +</P> + +<P> +She made no attempt to answer. +</P> + +<P> +Gently he urged the final words upon her attention. +</P> + +<P> +"There are always so many things left unfinished," he repeated. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said faintly. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, as if its weight dragged sorely upon his failing strength, +he raised her hand to the pillow and rested his cheek upon it. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't cry, Ethel," he said then. "Of course, if I had lived, it +might have meant so much to us both." +</P> + +<P> +Involuntarily she caught her breath and made a swift gesture, as if +to withdraw her hand. Then, with a hasty glance at Weldon, leaning +against the opposite wall, she controlled herself and allowed her +hand to rest where it was. +</P> + +<P> +"It would have meant so much to all of us, Captain Frazer." +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps. But to you and me—Ethel, I can't go out of life and give +you up!" Pitifully, longingly, the blue eyes stared up at her face +through the growing shadows of waning day and waning life. +Longingly, although the questioning look had left them. In its place +was an infinite, contented love, an absolute trust. +</P> + +<P> +The girl nerved herself to meet his eyes. Then she drew her own eyes +away, to give another hasty, appealing glance up into Weldon's +paling face. For him, as for her, the moment was all unexpected. For +him, as for her, there was need of all the reserve strength in life +to go through it honorably and without flinching. +</P> + +<P> +Up to that very hour, no thought of Leo Frazer's love had crossed +the mind of Ethel Dent. They had been friends, good comrades, +meeting often and always with much pleasure. She had acknowledged to +herself, long since, that he was a man among men; she honored him, +admired him, cared for him as she might have cared for an only +brother. Beyond that, she could not go. Moreover, it had never +occurred to her that Captain Frazer could mistake her attitude to +himself, could differentiate her light, bright cordiality from the +cordiality she showed to other men. When she had met him first, she +had been a mere girl in character and experience; love had had scant +place in her girlish dreams. Later, Weldon had come into her life. +His coming had changed many things for her; but it had made no +change in her attitude to the Captain. She was now, as always, his +loyal, admiring friend, no less, no more. She had supposed that he +had felt the same loyal friendship for her. Too late, she realized +her mistake. +</P> + +<P> +"You must have known it all, Ethel," the Captain was saying +steadily; "how my whole life has seemed to go into yours. I have +never told you. I was sure you knew it, without any telling, and I +have been waiting until the war was over, before asking you to go +home with me, as my wife. The—" he caught his breath sharply, "the +war is over for me now, dearest. I can't ask you to go home with me; +but—Tell me, Ethel, I have not been mistaken, all these months? You +have cared for me, as I have cared for you?" The last words came out +with the roundness of tone he had used in health; but there was a +weary drag to the hand that drew her hand still nearer to his cheek. +Ethel faltered. Then, soldier-like, she braced herself to fight to a +finish. It was not her fault that the man had mistaken her friendly, +cordial liking for something deeper, infinitely more lasting. She +had never consciously played with him, never sought to win his love. +Blame there was none; it was all only a mistake, albeit a terrible +one. Nevertheless— +</P> + +<P> +Desperately she glanced up from the blue eyes, still so wishfully +fixed upon her own, up to the drawn, white face of the haggard man +on the farther side of the bed. In that instant, the girl fought +madly with herself. Then her eyes dropped back to the bed once more. +Eternity and time; a final short, comforting word to the one, a long +explanation to the other. The mistake, if mistake there were, had +been all of her doing. Bravely she would take the bitter +consequences. Captain Frazer's day was passing fast. The night +remained for her talk with Weldon. Her eyes dropped back to the bed, +and her hand yielded itself to the pressure of the ice-cold fingers. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she said slowly and so faintly that Weldon, standing +breathless, could scarcely hear the words; "I have cared for you, as +you have cared for me." +</P> + +<P> +The fingers tightened over her hand; but the lids drooped heavily +above the dark blue eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Dearest—girl." Then, smiling to himself, Captain Leo Frazer fell +asleep. The next moment counted itself out by slow seconds. Then +Ethel raised her head and turned to smile drearily up at Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +Instead, she found herself smiling up at an empty wall. Harvard +Weldon had vanished and had left for her no word of farewell. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap20"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY +</H3> + +<P> +Up Commissioner Street and down Commissioner Street and around and +around Market Square tramped a haggard man in khaki who surveyed all +things with dull, unseeing eyes. On his cheek, an inch or so above +his stubbly beard, was a wide cross of plaster, and his left wrist +wore a narrow bandage. He walked with quick, nervous strides; yet +every now and then he halted to rest for a moment. Then he hurried +on again, as if pursued by some unseen, but malignant foe. +</P> + +<P> +Twice he turned northward and paused before the hospital, staring +irresolutely up at the lighted windows. Then, facing about abruptly, +he moved on, swiftly, but with the mechanical tread of a man in a +dream. Once he found himself resting on the steps of the Jewish +synagogue. The next time he roused himself to take note of his +surroundings, he was at the Berea Estate, following Hospital Hill +straight to the eastward. It was then that he had turned about and +faced back to the hospital. A scant half-dozen hours before, that +hospital had held what was all the world to him. Now, without +warning, that all had proved to be naught. +</P> + +<P> +The blow had come crashing upon him, straight between the eyes and +so suddenly that there had been no time for him to brace himself to +meet it. From the moment of his facing Ethel in the doorway of the +hospital, that noon, he had been sure that the talk which he would +have with her, that evening, could bring but the one ending. At +sight of the soiled and haggard man before her, her blue eyes had +lighted with something far more than pleased surprise. His appearing +had been quite unexpected; her meeting with him had been the naked +impulse of her girlish heart. And, all that endless day, her grief +for the Captain had in no way hidden her evident pleasure in his own +presence. And then, all at once, had come the end, unexpected and +hence doubly crushing. His young, newborn happiness was as little +strong to bear the blow as were his exhausted body and his shattered +nerve. Like a wild beast wounded to the death, he had crept silently +away, to go through his agony, unseen. +</P> + +<P> +Standing under the fierce glare of the electric light by the +hospital gate, his appearance would wellnigh have baffled the +recognition of his mother. Soiled and stained and tattered, his head +sunk between his shoulders, he looked a feeble man of middle years. +Dark shadows lay around his heavy gray eyes, and the corners of his +mouth drooped pitifully. And, somewhere inside that building, was +the girl who had snatched away from him what was dearer than life +itself. For six long months she had been the incentive to all of his +best work; it had been her influence which finally had led him to +come back into the firing line; it had been in the hope for the +future, a hope growing less and less vague as the months passed by, +that he had been willing and glad to prolong his stay through one +more torrid African summer. And to what end? +</P> + +<P> +Strange to say, it never once occurred to him to try to win her love +now, after all that bad passed. Still less did it occur to him to +doubt the truth of her final words to the Captain. Weldon had missed +the look of appealing anguish in the blue eyes which she had lifted +to his; but he had heard the low, steady voice, had seen the +pressure of the living fingers answer to the slight movement of the +hand already growing cold. He had heard, and seen. It was enough. +Always he had believed implicitly in Ethel's truth. There was no +reason he should distrust her now. It was only that he had been an +egregious ass to think that he could win her love, in the face of a +man like Captain Leo Frazer. With a mighty effort, he straightened +his shoulders, faced the wing where he knew the Captain would now be +lying and reverently removed his hat. Then, for one last time, his +eyes swept over the building and, turning away, he crawled off +towards the railway station. +</P> + +<P> +And, meanwhile, alone in a room behind one of those brightly-lighted +windows, a girl sat huddled together, her crossed arms on her knees +and her face buried in her arms, while she wailed to herself over +and over again,— +</P> + +<P> +"He might have waited! He might have waited! My God in heaven, what +have I done? But at least he might have waited!" +</P> + +<P> +A commissariat train was leaving Johannesburg at two o'clock the +next morning. His pass in his hand, Weldon clambered drearily on the +train for the long ride back to Kroonstad. Motion of any kind was +better than remaining longer in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, the +jolting of the train was wellnigh unbearable. His shoulder throbbed, +and the dull pain in his head was maddening. He had passed the stage +of weariness, however, where one is conscious of exhaustion. An +ever-tightening strain was upon him. He could not rest now; he must +go on, and on, and on, faster and ever faster, until at last +something should snap and quiet perforce should overtake him. +</P> + +<P> +Early dawn found him at Kroonstad. Sleep had been impossible for +him; he had no appetite for food, and it took an ever-increasing +effort for him to pull himself together. Like a man mounting a +steep, pathless hill, he tried to drag himself up above the +consciousness of his aching head and throbbing wounds; but it was +not to be done. At the station he halted irresolutely. Then of a +sudden he faced towards the great hospital tent. +</P> + +<P> +"I want something to steady me a bit," he said briefly to the first +doctor he met there. "I have two or three scratches, and I am +feeling fagged. Give me something to help me get a grip on myself +again, for I can't spend time to be ill." +</P> + +<P> +The doctor remonstrated; but Weldon's answer was peremptory. +</P> + +<P> +"I tell you, I can't stop. Give me something and let me go. I've +work at Lindley that must be done, and a convoy leaves in an hour." +</P> + +<P> +An hour later he was trudging over the veldt in the direction of +Lindley. Lindley was forty miles away; the roads were dusty, and the +sun of early February struck down upon him with the heat of a +belated summer. Nevertheless, at Lindley was his squadron, and with +his squadron would be work. Never in all his past life had Weldon +known this imperative need for work. In it now, and in its +accompanying excitement and in its inevitable risk, would lie his +ultimate salvation. For him, the future held but one plain duty, and +that duty was to forget. +</P> + +<P> +The experienced eye of the doctor had told him that the gaunt +trooper was a sick man; it had also told him that the trooper's +determination would outweigh his sickness, at least for the present +crisis. He made no effort to penetrate the cause of that +determination. He merely yielded to it. A doctor less wise would +have ordered Weldon into bed. This one saw further. He knew that a +delicately adjusted machine often receives its worst damage from the +friction needed to stop the whirring wheels. Better to wait and let +them run down, untouched. +</P> + +<P> +The forty miles from Kroonstad to Lindley were reducing themselves +from a geographical fact to a matter of physical and mental anguish. +There had been no rain for days, and under the burning sun, the +dusty veldt seemed dancing up and down before Weldon's tired, +feverish eyes. Now he passed through a stretch of bare and +burned-out sand; now he tramped over patches of tall dry grass; now he +plodded wearily around a heap of smooth black stones. Brick-red +ant-hills higher than his knees dotted themselves over the veldt, their +shell-like surface shielding a crowded insect colony within. +Ant-bear holes lurked unseen in his pathway, tripping his heedless +steps; and an occasional partridge went whirring upward, making him +start aside in causeless terror at the unwonted sound. And over it +all rested the glaring, shimmering, blinding light, laden with +myriad particles of dazzling red-brown dust. Later still, the +red-brown color vanished, and he walked for weary leagues over the +fire-blackened veldt where the black rocks offered no contrast to the +eye, and where the air was heavy with ashes caught up and scattered +by the light breeze which heralded the coming night. And it was all +so lonely, so hostile, so limitless. But no more lonely and hostile +and limitless than the desolate future which stretched away and away +before his gaze. +</P> + +<P> +As yet he dared not trust his mind to rest too much upon the past. +The future demanded his whole attention. It was a far cry for him +from the present up to his limit of threescore years and ten. Still, +he would not funk it now. That was the part of a sneak. Now, as +always, he would stand by his young resolution to play out the game, +to abide by the rules and to take the consequences. Nevertheless, it +would be weary work to play out the game to its end, when the end +held nothing for him in its keeping. His mind trailed off upon all +sorts or vague corollaries scarcely connected with the fact. He +recalled it with a jerk. +</P> + +<P> +The Captain was dead. Ethel had loved the Captain. She had told the +Captain of her love. As consequence, she could not love himself, +Harvard Weldon. But he loved her. He had loved her for thirteen +months and twenty-one days. Carefully he reckoned up the time; then, +to make sure, he counted it off upon his fingers. Yes, he had loved +her ever since that first lunch on the steamer, when she had snubbed +him so roundly. He did not know it then. Looking backward, he knew +it now. And there had been Cape Town, and Johannesburg, and Cape +Town again. He stumbled into the open mouth of an ant-bear's hole +and came down with a crash, full upon his wounded shoulder. Strange +that his step should be so uncertain! Strange that he should feel so +little inclination to swear! As he picked himself up, he wondered +vaguely whether his pipe would be refreshing; but his wonder +stopped, impotent to lead his dangling hand in the direction of his +pocket. Then his mind took up its interrupted story, its record of +brief, categorical facts. +</P> + +<P> +He had meant to go home, that winter. Instead, Ethel had fanned the +flame of his desire to go back to the front. He had left her, one +evening, to pass a sleepless night, and, the next morning, to take +himself out to enlist for another six months of service. The six +months were nearly ended. Only three weeks remained. And then? +Nothing. +</P> + +<P> +The second night found him still far from Lindley. He had plodded on +mechanically, stumbling often, but halting never, while his mind +went whirling on and on, over and over the same old questions. His +lips were feverish, and his eyes burned hotly, so it was almost with +a sense of relief that he greeted the swift chill which followed the +dropping of the sun. Over his head, the great arch of the sky shaded +from east to west through every tint of purple and blue and +turquoise and emerald-green, down to the golden band of the +afterglow. Then the stars began to dot the purple, their tiny points +of light serving only to emphasize its darkness, until the full moon +swept up across the heavens, throwing its mystic silver light over +all the land and adding tenfold to the empty loneliness of the +veldt. Sleep was out of the question. He could only snuggle more +closely into his blankets and wait for morning with what grace he +could. The stopping of his physical action only increased the +swiftness of his swirling thoughts which chased each other round and +round in circling eddies about one fixed point. That point was +Ethel. +</P> + +<P> +Across the veldt at his left hand, he had watched the chain of +blockhouses which lay along the country between Kroonstad and +Lindley. Their squat outlines and the shining blue of their +corrugated iron roofs had caught his wandering attention, held it, +pinned it to other associations with those same blockhouses and, of +a sudden, had brought him to a full realization that griefs did not +come singly. He had left Johannesburg, to face a future apart from +Ethel. He was coming back to Lindley, to face a future bereft of the +Captain. +</P> + +<P> +It was full noon, the next day, when the camp came into view. +Leaving the convoy to follow in his wake, he headed straight for the +rise where he had so often sat with Carew and gossiped of all things +under the light of the sun. Then, as the round tents lay under his +eyes like rows of dots punched into relief above the surface of the +plain, he sank down on the coarse, parched grass and hid his eyes in +his shaking hands. Yet even then the pitiless circle of tragic +thoughts refused to stop their ceaseless round. +</P> + +<P> +He roused himself at a touch on his arm. Kruger Bobs, at a distance, +was eying him with a look of chastened welcome; but Carew stood +beside him, one thin, sun-tanned hand on Weldon's shoulder. +</P> + +<P> +"It's all right, old man," he was saying. "Don't try to tell me +anything about it. Kruger Bobs saw you coming, and we rode out to +meet you. Come in and rest. You look utterly done up." +</P> + +<P> +Half way back to the camp, Carew spoke again; but it was only once. +</P> + +<P> +"I told the fellows you were coming, and that you would be tired. +They will keep out of your way, till you have had time to rest up a +bit. Paddy is waiting to look out for you; but you needn't worry. He +knows when to hold his tongue. If you need anything, or if you care +to talk, send him out to look for me. Meanwhile, you need some +rest." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap21"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE +</H3> + +<P> +"For God's sake, Weldon, how long is this going to last?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon raised his eyes from the seven-weeks-old Times in his hand, +and looked at Carew in surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"What last?" he questioned blankly. +</P> + +<P> +Carew sprang to his feet and began to pace up and down with +impatient, nervous steps. +</P> + +<P> +"This. Everything," he said. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's smile, though it went no deeper than his lips, was half +sarcastic, wholly sad. +</P> + +<P> +"Specify," he advised languidly. "My mind can't grasp your +generalities." +</P> + +<P> +Carew took a few more turns. Then he came back to Weldon's side. +</P> + +<P> +"It's this way, Harvey," he said slowly, for the moment lapsing into +the name by which he had called his friend in their childhood; +"since you came back from Johannesburg, you've not been the same +man. What has done it?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's lips shut with a tightness which curled the corners +downward. Then, as he looked into the questioning eyes and anxious +face of his companion, his own eyes softened, and he changed his +mind in regard to keeping silence. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a hard journey," he said evasively, yet with a kindly accent +to the words. "Such days take it out of a man, Carew. I shall brace +up in time." +</P> + +<P> +Carew shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"That is just what you must not do. You have braced too long, as it +is. Your wounds were nothing but scratches. They healed up easily +enough, and you say, yourself, that they don't trouble you; but you +look—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" "As if things had ended for you," Carew blurted out +desperately. +</P> + +<P> +Slowly, wearily, Weldon lifted his eyes to his friend's face. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, they have," he said, with an intonation of dreary finality. +</P> + +<P> +"Rot!" Carew observed profanely. "Look here, Weldon, you've no +business to funk in this fashion. It's not like you, either." +</P> + +<P> +The word stung Weldon. He scrambled to his feet and stood to +attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Carew, no other man could say that to me," he said slowly. +</P> + +<P> +Carew maintained his ground. +</P> + +<P> +"No other man cares for you as I do, Harvey. We've been like +brothers, and I have been too proud of your record to be willing to +sit by, quiet, and see you spoil the last round of the game. There +is too much at stake." Weldon raised his brows. +</P> + +<P> +"What is at stake?" he asked coldly. +</P> + +<P> +"Your whole army record. Your manhood. Your—" Carew hesitated; then +he nerved himself to speak out plainly; "your love for Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon shut his teeth and drew in his breath between them, while the +dark red blood rushed across his face, and then died away, to leave +in its place a grayish pallor. He put out his hand, as if to ward +off something. +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, don't!" he said huskily. +</P> + +<P> +Carew watched him for an instant. Then he stepped forward and linked +his arm through that of Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +"There's nothing doing now," he said quietly. "Let's go for a walk. +We can talk better, while we're moving, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"But what is the use of talking?" Weldon objected listlessly. +</P> + +<P> +Carew looked into the heavy eyes, the overcast face of his friend. +Not once during the past three weeks since Weldon's return from +Johannesburg had the cloud lifted. +</P> + +<P> +"You must talk, Weldon," he said firmly. "If you don't talk, you'll +go mad. I've watched you, day after day, hoping you would speak of +your own free will. I have hated to urge you. It seemed rather +beastly to drive you into telling me things that are none of my +business. But they are my business, in a sense. There's nobody in +all South Africa who can go back farther with you into the past. +That alone ought to count for something." +</P> + +<P> +Handsome still, in spite of his dark sunburn and his time-stained +khaki, Carew's face was wonderfully attractive, as it looked into +that of his friend. Weldon felt the attraction, even while he was +wondering why it was so powerless to move him. He liked Carew; since +the death of the Captain, no other man was linked more closely with +his life. Nevertheless, Carew's words left him cold. All things did +leave him cold of late. It was as if, in the fierce conflagration of +that one hour in the Johannesburg hospital, the fires of his nature +had burned themselves out beyond the possibility of being rekindled. +His intellect told him that Carew was in the right of it, that his +alternatives were speech or madness; but he faced the alternatives +with an absolute indifference. His intellect also told him that, for +the past three weeks, Carew's kindness had been unremitting; that +his care had served as a buffer between himself and the clumsy +tactlessness of their mates; that his sympathy now was leading him +to try to storm the barrier of his own reserve; but he met Carew's +advances with an icy front which could be thawed neither from +outside nor from within. It was not his will to be ungrateful; it +was beyond his present power to show the gratitude which he really +felt. And Carew, with the supreme insight which marks the friendship +of men at times, interpreted Weldon's mood aright and forebode to +take offence. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, watching his friend closely, Carew had judged the case +to be serious. He had felt no surprise at the state of collapse in +which Weldon had struggled back into camp. The battle, the half-dressed +wounds, the nerve-racking journey, the watching the slow +approach of death and the accepting the fact of the loss of a valued +friend: all these were enough to wreck the vitality of a man. With +an almost womanish tenderness, Carew had brought his friend back to +the tent, and made him over to the care of Paddy who gave up all +things else, for the sake of his little Canuck. All that afternoon +and night, Weldon lay passive, inert, while Paddy bathed him, fed +him, poured cool, soft things over his wounds, fed him again, and +then sat down beside him with his own stubby hand resting against +Weldon's limp fingers. But, the next morning, Weldon rose, buttoned +and belted himself with elaborate care. Then, disregarding the +implorings of Carew and Paddy, who were terrified at the steady, +unseeing look in his gray eyes and at the tense lines about his +lips, he went to his captain and demanded his old position of +regimental rough rider. +</P> + +<P> +He obtained it. In fact, it was given, not only freely, but with +joy. In all the regiment, no one else had been able to subdue such +wild mounts as Weldon. In former days, he had stopped at little. Now +he stopped at nothing. Horse-sickness, the scourge of South Africa, +was in the land; and the underfed, overworked mounts yielded to it +with pitiful ease. And, meanwhile, the need for horses was greater +than ever. Drive after drive through the country about Kroonstad was +bringing in the hostile Boers; but it was also bringing down the +horses. The call for new mounts was limitless; limitless, too, the +hours and the strength and the skill which Trooper Weldon put forth +to the supplying that call. He was utterly untiring; but he was +utterly reckless as well. Checked by no risk, sobered by no danger, +he rushed into risk and danger as rushes the man whose one wish is +to escape from a future of which he is in mortal, agonizing dread. +</P> + +<P> +Carew said little; he watched much, and he meditated more. At first, +he hoped all things from the healthy, outdoor life. He watched +Weldon's muscles harden, saw his appetite return and welcomed with +happy anticipations all the signs of his returning rugged strength. +Then, as the time passed by, his anxiety came back upon him in full +measure. Long days in the saddle were followed by sleepless nights; +the shadow never came out of Weldon's eyes, the alertness never came +back into his step. Lean, gaunt as a greyhound, he went about his +work with a silent, dogged endurance which took no note of the other +life about him. For Trooper Weldon, his profession had dropped to a +dull, plodding routine of danger lapping close upon the heels of +danger. And still he spoke no word of the sorrow which had brought +him to this end. +</P> + +<P> +And Carew, meanwhile, could not fail to note the increasing anxiety +with which Alice Mellen wrote of her cousin. From Alice's letters, +it appeared that Ethel, totally unnerved by the death of Captain +Frazer, had begged so piteously to be released from her hospital +work that she had finally been sent home to Cape Town. She had +seemed to be far from well, when she had left Johannesburg; +nevertheless, she had no sooner reached home than she had plunged +into the midst of the whirlpool of social life where she was said to +be the gayest of the gay. +</P> + +<P> +Cape Town, that fall, was facing the end of the war and the +consequent departure of the swarm of young Englishmen who had made +their headquarters there during the past two years. Accordingly, it +resolved to make the most of the short time remaining to it; and the +early weeks of the year saw the little city neglecting all other +things for the sake of making merry with her fast-vanishing heroes. +And, in all the round of merry-making, Ethel Dent was in evidence, +bright and flashing as the diamonds that blazed on her shoulder, and +as soft. Her wit was ceaseless, her energy untiring. Always the +middle of a group, she yet always held herself within range of her +father's protection. He watched her proudly; yet his pride was +sometimes mingled with alarm, as he saw the waxy whiteness of her +ears and the dark shadows which lay beneath her eyes. It was plain +to him that all was not well with the girl; yet he was wholly at a +loss as to the cause of the trouble. +</P> + +<P> +Strange to say, he never once thought of Weldon; neither did his +mind linger long upon the Captain. True, Ethel and Captain Frazer +had been good friends; but so had Ethel been good friends with many +another man. The secret of that last hour of the Captain's life was +buried in two hearts. Weldon could not speak of it; Ethel would not. +And so, in the eyes of her friends, Ethel's experience had been +sorrowful, but scarcely touched with tragedy. The heroic passing of +a casual friend is no cause for a lasting change in the nature of a +happy-tempered girl. +</P> + +<P> +However, Alice had noted the change and, quite unable to account for +it, she had commented upon it to Carew. Her letter, coming that same +morning, had quickened his slow-forming resolution to speak. Taken +quite by itself, her account of Ethel would have made scant +impression upon him. Taken in connection with what he had seen of +Weldon, it forced him to draw certain conclusions which, though +wrong in detail, were comparatively accurate in their main outlines. +</P> + +<P> +He and Weldon came back from their walk, wrapped in the silence of +perfect understanding. Carew had asked few questions; Weldon had +made even fewer replies, and those replies had been brief. Ethel's +name had scarcely been mentioned between them. Their talk had mainly +concerned itself with Captain Frazer, his life, his passing, the +void he had left behind him. Only one sentence had related to the +scene in the hospital; but its brief, tragic summing up of the +situation had been sufficient. Carew had made no answer, save to +walk on for a few steps in silence, with his hand resting on the +shoulder of his friend. +</P> + +<P> +That night, he wrote to Alice. The letter was long and full of +detail. It told what he knew, what he had inferred and what he +feared. It begged her, in the name of their own sacred happiness, to +help him win the same happiness for these two who, longing to come +together, were straying always farther apart; and it ended with the +words with which he had begun his talk with Weldon, that noon,— +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap22"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO +</H3> + +<P> +Paddy waved his thumb disrespectfully towards the rear of the +column. +</P> + +<P> +"And what can you expect of a man that goes to the wars in a fancy +petticoat, let alone a khaki apron to cover up the front of it?" he +demanded. "And look at the bare knees of 'em, for all the world like +knots in the branches of an oak-tree! They may be trained to believe +it's comfortable to walk round in public with their kneepans in +plain sight; but no man can ever make me think it's either beautiful +to the eye, or respectful in the presence of one's betters." +</P> + +<P> +"But their officers wear the same uniform, Paddy," Weldon objected. +"Who are their betters?" +</P> + +<P> +"Myself, little Canuck, and yourself, too," Paddy answered calmly. +"The maple and the shamrock, severally and together, can knock the +spots out of all the thistles that's growing." +</P> + +<P> +"Until it comes to a fight," Carew suggested, from Paddy's other +side. "The Highlanders have made their record, this time." +</P> + +<P> +But Paddy shook his head. "Wait then till the end of the chapter," +he predicted. "My turn hasn't come yet. Belike I'll be the hero of +them all. I was minding my pots and my kettles, while the Black +Watch was slinging lead up on the road into Kimberley. But, faith, +if I was one of them, with the choice before me between a glorious +death and the having to live in the sound of the bagpipes, I'd mount +a Red Cross and take a white flag in my hand and sally forth to be +seen and shot by the Boers." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't like the bagpipes, Paddy?" +</P> + +<P> +Paddy's reply was sententious. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you ever hear a pig soliloquizing to himself, just as he +crossed the tracks between the wheels of an express train? Well +then!" +</P> + +<P> +"Meanwhile," Carew observed thoughtfully; "I wonder why we are out +on this trek." +</P> + +<P> +"To escort the little Canuck with his mounts, and to study the +surface of the land, to be sure." +</P> + +<P> +Carew's eye swept the barren, desolate expanse about them. +</P> + +<P> +"It is a bit monotonous, though." +</P> + +<P> +"It's monotony that's healthy. You can't make a whole dinner off +from red pepper, and you can't make a whole campaign off from +smokeless powder. In either case, you get too much heated up, for +the show it all makes. Strike hard and eat hot at long intervals and +with exceeding unction; and, meanwhile, pause and let it soak in. +It's not the hottest fire that gives off the most blazes. And where +is that nigger of a Kruger Bobs?" +</P> + +<P> +"In among the wagons with The Nig." "Just for all the world like the +deuce of spades! The Black Watch would better adopt the two of 'em +for their colors. The Nig is a pretty bit of property; but this is +the brute for me." And Paddy bent over in the saddle to stroke the +neck of Piggie who snapped back at him testily. +</P> + +<P> +However, in all truth, the little gray broncho deserved all of +Paddy's praise. Scarred from muzzle to pastern by errant bullets, +limping slightly on one fore leg, she still had borne her master +bravely over weary miles of veldt, into many a skirmish and through +the kicking, squealing throngs of her kindred which crowded the +Lindley kraal. Long since, Weldon had discovered that the +thoroughbred Nig was an ornament; but that Piggie was a necessity. +Again and yet again, her flying feet and gritty temper had brought +him, unscathed, through perilous plights. She read his mind as by +instinct; left unguided, she guided herself with exceeding +discretion; and, upon more than one occasion, she had endured the +nervous strain of feeling a human body dangling limply above the +saddle bow, held in place by main strength of her master who, +crouching forward beneath the heavy fire, could only indicate the +way of safety by the pressure of this heel and then that against her +heaving flanks. Surely, if ever honors could be given to a faithful, +plucky little broncho, Piggie should have been gazetted for the +Distinguished Service Order. Not to the men alone is due all the +honor of victory. +</P> + +<P> +But now Piggie, fresh from a prolonged interval of resting in the +care of Kruger Bobs, felt that she was out on an excursion of pure +pleasure. Behind her trailed a long column of men and mounts and +wagons; around her was a knot of horses whom she knew well; and +before her stretched away the dry and level veldt, broken at the +sky-line by a range of hills that rose sharply in a jagged line +which culminated in one peak lifted far above all the others. +</P> + +<P> +In the very front of the column rode a score or more of the South +African Light Horse, with Weldon, for the moment, in command. The +man was showing, just then, something of the temper of his mount. It +would have been good to leave behind him the slow-moving column and +go dashing away alone, far across the level plain. A spirit of +restlessness was upon him; Paddy's utterances grew vague in his +ears, and he cast longing glances towards the range of hills to the +southward, as if eager to explore them and find what secrets, if +any, lay within their keeping. Then he reined in his broncho and +forced his mind back to Paddy's conversation, still upon the deeds +of the kilted heroes of the Black Watch. +</P> + +<P> +"And they do say," he was observing; "that Wauchope was light in his +mind—fey, them piping, petticoated Scotchmen calls it—the night +before his death. Now that's something that's beyond my thinking. No +dead man ever knows he's going to die. Witness the last words of +most of 'em! They make up their death-bed speeches, and then they +turn thrifty and save up the speeches till next time. Little Canuck +dear, what would you say, if you was hit?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon laughed shortly. +</P> + +<P> +"I should probably say 'Thank God,'" he answered. +</P> + +<P> +Paddy crossed himself. +</P> + +<P> +"And might heaven forgive you then, little one!" he said gravely. +"The Lord and the Holy Virgin may send the bullets to kill you, +unless it's from the Boers who is guided by the Father of Lies; but +it's small thanks in return they will be asking. Take the benefits +of Providence with a shout of thanksgiving; but swallow hard and +keep a stiff upper lip, when it smacks you over the head with a +shillalegh." Then, of a sudden, he bent over in the saddle once more +and rested his hand on Weldon's fingers which lay on the broncho's +neck. "And, if I mistake not, little one, it is what you have been +doing, these late days, so forgive me teaching you a lesson you've +already learned by heart." +</P> + +<P> +Two nights before this, Carew's letter to Alice had ended with the +outcry,— +</P> + +<P> +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" +</P> + +<P> +And now the end was almost in sight. Early the next day, there had +come a call for remounts for a column halted on the veldt near +Reitz, and Weldon, with a score of others from his squadron, had +been sent out with the mounts to join the column for the trek to the +southward. As a matter of course, Weldon had asked that the score +might include Paddy and Carew; and now, with them at his side, he +was at the head of the column which trailed away far towards the +southward, twelve hundred poorly mounted men riding in leisurely +fashion towards Harrismith and the chance of rounding up an +occasional Boer. +</P> + +<P> +Dusk of the second day had brought the hills on the sky-line close +to their eyes, and had sharpened the ragged peaks into threatening +crests of bare, black rock. Already the hills were but three miles +distant, and the hour for halt almost at hand, when scouts came +flying back to the column, breathless with haste and with the +consciousness of tidings to impart. The colonel received the tidings +with outward calm. +</P> + +<P> +"A laager of fifteen hundred Boers? And a mile and a half to the +south of us? We must attack." His eyes swept the faces of his men. +"Trooper Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +At the word, Weldon rode forward and saluted. +</P> + +<P> +"That highest hill is the key to the position. It is the one we must +hold. Can you and your men ride around to the west of the laager, +get that hill and hold it at all costs until I can send +reinforcements to you? The reinforcements will start as soon as you +reach the top of the hill. Keep out of sight, while you can. Then +rush it. You understand?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon nodded; then, his head erect, his eyes flashing, he saluted +for a second time and, with his men at his heels, dashed off into +the thickening dusk. +</P> + +<P> +Like foothills beside a mountain range, so the veldt before him was +already broken and crumpled into a series of irregular ridges, +opening in their midst to form a tiny plain where the Boer laager +lay spread out before them. The dusk of the plain was dotted with +scattered camp fires; but, beyond the ridges, it lay heavy, and in +that heaviness Weldon placed his trust. For two thirds of his whole +distance, he could keep below a ridge to the westward of the laager. +The final third lay full in view of the enemy, full up the +increasing steepness of the mountain side, where, horses failing, it +would be necessary to creep by stealth and upon the hands and knees. +And, where the shelter ended, there lay before them a short defile +between walls of naked rock, and the defile was narrow. +</P> + +<P> +Half the way to the defile was already accomplished when Weldon +heard, from the crest of the ridge above him, the double crack of a +Mauser rifle, and then the sound of scurrying, unshod feet. He shut +his teeth, and his chin rose a bit higher. "A picket! And now the +brute has run in to tell tales," he said shortly. "Quick, men, it's +a race between us now." +</P> + +<P> +Answering to the touch of the spur, the gray broncho went leaping +forward, with Paddy's horse neck and neck at her side. From beyond +the ridge, the trio of guns could be heard, barking ceaselessly, +while their shells dropped thick into the laager, scarcely eight +hundred yards away. And now the defile, short, but narrow, was close +at hand. +</P> + +<P> +Ka-paw! Ka-paw! +</P> + +<P> +From the mouth of the tiny pass, a rain of bullets swept down upon +them. A horse dropped, shot through the knee; another, hit in the +neck, bolted, threw its wounded rider and then, mad with pain, +hurled itself straight into the ranks of the enemy. A second shot, +almost at arm's length, threw it to the earth; but not until it had +done its work. The half-broken Boer ponies, fat from much feeding +and totally unaccustomed to this species of missile, swerved at its +approach and destroyed the aim of the second volley, which was +answered by a fire that sent a full quarter of the twoscore Boers +sprawling heavily groundward. +</P> + +<P> +A scant ten minutes sufficed for the rest. Five troopers lay +helpless on the dusty soil. Five dead Boers blocked the trail at the +entrance of the narrow pass. It was a drawn game; but the end was +not yet. From beyond the ridge, Weldon could hear the guns still +pounding ceaselessly. He knew that, half a mile in the rear, his +colonel was watching for him to come to the crest of the hill; that, +in a sense, the whole game was waiting upon his moves. Whirling +himself about, he gave a short, sharp order. Scarcely a moment +later, he was astonished to see the Boers in the pass giving way +before the mad rush of his paltry fifteen men. The narrow pass was +his own. +</P> + +<P> +Beyond the pass were more ridges, some parallel with his course, +some crossing it. Far to the eastward, he could see a moving spot, +black even in the increasing darkness of the night. Leaving Piggie +to pick her own way along the rocky ridge, he rose in his stirrups, +shaded his eyes with his hands and peered anxiously towards the +spot. At last his straining eyes could make out eight Boer horsemen, +riding furiously towards the peak which he was in honor bound to +hold. And their course was the chord of the arc of his own circle. +He dropped back to the saddle where he bent low, yielding his whole +body to the flying body of his horse. +</P> + +<P> +The crest was sharp. To the east, its approach was more easy; but on +the west it offered a wall of blank, black rock. The fat Boer ponies +were still at some distance from the eastern slope, when Weldon +flung himself from his panting broncho. Carew protested, as they +told off by fours and he was left, the third man, with Paddy's +mount, the gray broncho and a huge brown Argentine horse on his +hands. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, old man!" Weldon said briefly. "It's luck, and dead against +you. Still, it may save Miss Mellen a bad half-hour. Look out for +Piggie. She deserves it." And, turning, he led the way up the wall +of rock, with thirteen men, breathless, grim and eager, scrambling +at his heels. +</P> + +<P> +For moments, it seemed to him that Fate was idly tossing the dice to +and fro, before allowing herself to make the final, decisive cast. +From the farther side of the hill, he heard a sudden terrified snort +from one of the Boer ponies, then the thud of feet, as they charged +up the approaches of the long slope. From behind him, there arose a +groan, as one of the men, missing his foothold in the deepening +dusk, crashed back against the loose rocks at the bottom of the +hill. Then a shot and a whinnying moan told him that Carew and his +three comrades had edged around the base of the hill into range of +the enemy above them. The man might be wounded, too, as well as the +mount. Seven Boers, and they were thirteen in all. The cast was all +for— +</P> + +<P> +A dash of light! A rattle of firing! Three of his men dropped +backwards. The other ten looked up to face a second flash from the +summit. Only eight heard the answering echoes which came rolling +back to them from the encircling hills. Then Paddy's voice came in +his ears, low, but as unconcerned as ever. +</P> + +<P> +"Remember the fellow who was rejected on account of his teeth, +little Canuck? 'Faith,' he said; 'it's shooting the damned Boers I +want to be, not eating them.' But, by the holy Virgin Mary, in +another ten minutes we'll be shaking 'em between our teeth." +</P> + +<P> +The next flash but one showed only five men on the steep rocky wall; +but those five men were close to the summit. Once on the top, their +rifles could come into play. It was maddening to be picked off, like +stuffed crows resting on a tree branch; maddening to listen to the +low sounds from beneath which told them that some one of their +comrades was facing the end of his fight. Then, just as they reached +the summit, one of their five dropped, with a bullet shattering the +bone of his ankle. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, boys! You'll get there," he said, as the next in line dashed +past him. "The hill is Weldon's. Mind you hold it for him. The devil +is in him, and he's bound to win." +</P> + +<P> +On top of the hill, six Boers were huddled in the scant shelter of a +few low, scattered rocks tufted with a bunch of brush whose bleached +stalks marked the darkness with a pale line of range for their fire. +The next volley went astray. It was answered by the crack of Paddy's +rifle. Paddy's chuckle followed close on the crack. "I rolled him +over like a sausage in the hot fat," he commented, as he took a +second aim. "Here goes for another, and may his bed in heaven have a +valance to hide his sins!" A second Boer vanished behind the rocks. +</P> + +<P> +Four Boers in shelter, four Britons in the open; and, on the plain +beneath, twenty-seven hundred men were waiting to see the outcome of +the game. +</P> + +<P> +The tension of the eight men increased. It rendered their aim +unsteady. Under its influence, seven men fell to wasting their +ammunition. The eighth was Paddy. Firing rarely, his rare bullets +told. Now a finger was shattered, now an ear was grazed. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not doing much killing; but, faith, I'm warming 'em up a bit," +he said, as he halted to cool his rifle. "It's keeping the ball +a-rolling, and them busy. Else, belike they'd find Satan filling the +idle hands of them with bad deeds. Little Canuck dear, this is hot +work for a boy." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon nodded. His hat had been lost in the scramble up the hill, +his putties were dragged into heaps of khaki about his knees, the +shoulder of his coat was torn by a passing bullet and a scarlet +trickle lined his cheek; but his face was alert and eager, his lips +parted in a half-smile which brought back to Paddy's mind a dim +picture of the boyish trooper he had known and loved at Piquetberg +Road. Then another man in khaki dropped at their feet. The lines of +Weldon's mouth straightened. +</P> + +<P> +"No go," he said briefly. "We must charge. It's our only chance." +</P> + +<P> +Paddy took one last, hasty shot. Then, gripping his rifle, he turned +to Weldon. +</P> + +<P> +"True, little Canuck," he answered loyally. "Go on, and be sure +Paddy will follow you to the other edge of the grave!" +</P> + +<P> +He spoke truthfully. The reinforcements came rushing up the eastern +slope of the hill, to find their pathway encumbered with bearded men +in frock-coats and bandoliers. On top of the crest, surrounded by +the wounded and the dying, sat a single man in khaki, the light of +victory in his gleaming eyes, and Paddy's lifeless body clasped in +his weary arms. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap23"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE +</H3> + +<P> +"Yes," Carew said meditatively; "I wish there had been glory enough +to go around. As long as there wasn't, though, I am glad it was +fated to fall to your share." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon hurled a little black stone at a great black rock. +</P> + +<P> +"Not so much glory, after all." +</P> + +<P> +Carew raised his eyes and apostrophized the dark gray clouds rushing +across the paler gray arch of the sky. +</P> + +<P> +"Just listen to the man! What can he be wanting? 'Not so much +glory!' And he recommended for a V. C.!" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"What does it profit a man," he paraphrased; "if he gain the V. C. +and lose one of his best friends? Besides, I didn't gain it; it was +fated. Paddy was as brave as I, and so were half a dozen more of +them. It was only chance that brought me through the bullets." +</P> + +<P> +"Poor Paddy!" Carew's tone was full of thoughtful regret. +</P> + +<P> +"Not poor at all. He had the end we all are wishing for. He died +with his boots on, and fighting pluckily for a forlorn hope. We +can't mourn a man that we envy." +</P> + +<P> +Half way to the distant sky-line, the horses of the squadron were +grazing peacefully over the stubbly grass. The corporal and the +third of the troopers appointed to guard them were far away towards +the crest of a ridge to the westward, and Carew and Weldon were +alone. Carew sat silent for a moment, his eyes on the scattered +groups of horses. Then he turned and looked directly at his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Perhaps," he assented. "I was sorry to be out of the scrimmage. It +took all my grit to obey you, old man; but it was an order. Now it +is over—" +</P> + +<P> +"Well?" Weldon prompted him. +</P> + +<P> +"Now it is over, I am less sorry than I was. The fact is, the future +holds a good deal for us." +</P> + +<P> +"For you, perhaps." +</P> + +<P> +"For you, too. The whole future of a man doesn't go to wreck in an +hour. There are other crises later on, and some of them are bound to +come out well. Save yourself for those, Weldon. There is no especial +use in throwing yourself away." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not. But, when the order comes, I must obey it," Weldon said +gloomily. +</P> + +<P> +"It depends something on the order; but it depends a good sight more +on the way you obey it. When a man comes into collision with a +bulldog, it's generally wise to grapple with him back of his teeth; +else, you may lose a thumb or two. It's the same way with your +orders here. Because you don't funk, there is no reason you should +flirt with an early death." +</P> + +<P> +"But I don't." +</P> + +<P> +"What about now?" +</P> + +<P> +"What do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"That you ought to be in hospital." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon threw back his head and laughed, but mirthlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, then?" +</P> + +<P> +Without speaking, Carew took out his pipe, filled it and began +fumbling in his pocket. +</P> + +<P> +"Have you a match?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon nodded, produced the match, lighted it and held it to the +extended pipe. Carew's eyes, drooped to the bowl, watched the bit of +flame. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you call that a steady hand?" he asked then. "Man, you're ill, I +tell you. Your face is hot and your hands are cold, and your nerves +are worn to shoestrings, frayed shoestrings at that. If you keep on, +you'll be down flatter than you like. You ought to have stopped four +weeks ago." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon crossed his arms at the nape of his neck and lay back at his +ease on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Then what would have become of my V. C.?" he queried, with languid +indifference. +</P> + +<P> +"But I thought you claimed not to care for your V. C." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't. My friends may, however." "As a legacy? I think your +friends may possibly choose you to the V. C." +</P> + +<P> +"Foolish of them," Weldon commented. "Still, 'If we could choose the +time, and choose aright, 'T were best to die, our honor at the +height.' I learned that when I was a small boy; but I've only just +found out what it means." +</P> + +<P> +With scoffing lips, but eyes full of unspoken love, Carew turned on +his friend. +</P> + +<P> +"Don't dodder, Weldon," he counselled him. "That's canting drivvle, +made to console the unsuccessful. No man knows when he has reached +his high-water mark. Yours may have come on the day you licked +Stevie Ballard for gilding the tailless cat; it may not come till +you are ninety." +</P> + +<P> +"No." The syllable was quiet, deliberate. Then Weldon roused himself +and sat up to speak with sudden energy. "Promise me this, Carew, +that while the matter is hanging fire, you won't mention this V. C. +business to any one." +</P> + +<P> +Carew stared at him in unmixed surprise. +</P> + +<P> +"What's the matter now?" he asked blankly. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing, only that I want you to promise." +</P> + +<P> +"Not to—" +</P> + +<P> +"Not to a living soul." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? What's the use?" +</P> + +<P> +"No use, but my wish. If it comes off, let it be as a joyous +surprise. If it misses fire, as it quite well may, then there'll be +no harm done. In either case, it is best to keep still. My own +notion is that I'll not get it. As a rule, one doesn't get the V. C. +for shinning up the side of a hill, no matter how steep it is." +</P> + +<P> +Carew made no attempt to discuss the chances. Instead, he merely +asked,— +</P> + +<P> +"Mayn't I tell Miss Mellen?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon shook his head. It was exactly to prevent the inevitable +consequences of Alice Mellen's knowing the story that he was seeking +to extort the promise from Carew. To protect his motive, however, he +took a sudden resolution. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall not even tell my mother," he answered, with slow emphasis. +</P> + +<P> +Carew raised his brows. +</P> + +<P> +"Then I suppose that ties my tongue. I am sorry. What's the use of +being so confoundedly modest, Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +"Do you promise?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I must." +</P> + +<P> +"On your honor?" +</P> + +<P> +"On my honor." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon stretched himself out at full length once more. +</P> + +<P> +"So be it. Give me a light. You took my last match," he said as +unconcernedly as if they had merely been talking of the weather. +</P> + +<P> +Indeed, the weather might well have been the subject of their talk. +The earth was baked until it cracked beneath the parching sun and +wind. There had been no rain for weeks; but, to-day, the raw wind +sent the lead-colored clouds flying over the sky, and the +lead-colored clouds were heavy with rain. All the morning and till +mid-afternoon, the column had been camping not far away, while their +weary, hungry mounts had been turned out on the veldt to graze. For +men and mounts, the halt was needed. +</P> + +<P> +The fight about the laager had been no easy victory. Twelve hundred +half-starved Britons are no match for fifteen hundred Boers fat with +easy living. Weldon's hold on the crest had decided the game; but +the game had not played itself out without wounds for some and utter +weariness for all. War mad, yet half-dazed in all other respects, +Weldon had watched the reinforcements come swarming up the hill to +his relief, had heard their cheers mingling themselves with the +sound of his name. Then, listless, but with his arm still about +Paddy's shoulders, he had seen the fight move to its destined +finish. He came down from the hilltop, feeling that something had +taken yet one more turn in the evertightening coil of his brain. For +one instant, as they were laying Paddy into the narrow grave scooped +out of the veldt, the coil relaxed. Then, as the lumps of earth +closed over his plucky, loyal little comrade, it tightened again and +pressed on him more closely than ever. +</P> + +<P> +And that was a week ago; and the week between had been one long trek +in search of errant Boers. Weldon still rode in the front of the +column. He had been ordered into hospital; but, bracing himself, he +had looked the doctor steadily between the eyes and had refused to +obey. The hospital was not for him—as yet. "By Jove!" Carew was +remarking deliberately. "Look at the horses!" +</P> + +<P> +Noses in air, tails lashing and eyes staring wildly, the frightened +groups had swept together and were rushing down upon them in one mad +stampede. Straight towards the two troopers they came dashing along, +swerved slightly and went sweeping past them, wrapped in a thick +column of dust which parted, just as the horde rushed by, before the +fierce impact of the breaking storm. From zenith to horizon, the +leaden sky was marked with wavering lines of golden fire; but the +shock of the thunder was outborne by the clash of falling hail. Half +a mile away, the tents were riddled by the egg-sized lumps of ice; +and, out on the open veldt, Carew threw himself on the earth, face +downward, and buried his head in his sheltering arms. But Weldon +staggered to his feet. In the thick of the flying troop of horses, +he had seen the little gray broncho, and now, before she swept on +out of hearing, he turned his back to the gale and gave a high, +shrill whistle. It was months, now, since Piggie had learned that +call. Again and again she had come trotting up to him, to rub her +muzzle against his neck in token that she had heard and understood. +There was scant chance that the call would be carried to her by the +boisterous wind, scanter chance still that, hearing it now in that +mad rout, she would heed. Nevertheless, Weldon took the chance. +Obviously stampeded by the enemy, the missing horses would leave the +column powerless to repel the attack which was imminent. If Piggie +could be recalled, there was still a chance to regain the other +mounts. Yet, even while he was weighing all the chances, he smiled +to himself as he recalled the ineffectual little whistle that had +gone out on the whistling wind. The chance was gone. Like Carew, he +would lie down and seek what shelter he could get from the earth and +from his own clasping arms. +</P> + +<P> +The hail, falling thickly, shut down about the troop of horses and +took them from his sight. If his eyes could have followed them, he +would have seen one little gray head toss itself upward from the +heart of the throng, one sturdy little gray back move more and more +slowly, turn slightly, then weave its patient way in and out between +its frightened companions until, free from the press of the crowd, +it stood alone on the hail-lashed plain. Ten minutes later, Weldon +felt a soft, wet muzzle poking its way between his tight-locked +arms. The rest was simple. It amounted to riding back to the column +to give warning of the enemy who rode close in the rear, to +summoning Kruger Bobs and The Nig, and then, without stopping for a +saddle, to go galloping away to the sky-line to round up the +stampeded herd. The first dash of hail over, the rain fell fast upon +them; but, above its roar, they could hear the steady firing of the +pom pom behind them and the crackle of musketry mingled with the +heavier fire. +</P> + +<P> +Four o'clock had brought the stampede and the storm. Seven o'clock +brought Weldon and Kruger Bobs, drenched to the skin, back into a +demoralized camp. Nine o'clock found Weldon still in the saddle, his +teeth chattering, his brown cheeks ablaze and his eyes hot with +fever, while he waited for the pitching of his tattered tent. Then, +even before its soggy, torn folds were stretched and pegged into +position, he turned and rode off in search of a doctor. +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry," he said briefly; "but I think I've a touch of fever. Can +you put me to bed somewhere?" +</P> + +<P> +The next morning, he greeted Kruger Bobs by the name of a girl +cousin who had died, ten years before. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap24"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR +</H3> + +<P> +For two weeks, the fever held Weldon in its grip. For two weeks, he +was prostrate, first with the halting column, then at the base +hospital at Kroonstad. The fever was never very high, nor was it +intermittent. It merely hung about him and ate away his strength. +For the time being, he was content to lie quiet and stare up at the +electric lights scattered through the tent and wonder about Ethel. +Now and then some sight in the hospital set him to thinking about +the Captain, wondering if he were happy in his new life of rest and +peace, he who had so often been in the thick of the fiercest fight. +Or he thought of Paddy, brave, merry little Irishman who, fighting +like an angry wolf, had died with a joke still hanging on his lips. +Then his mind went back again to Ethel. +</P> + +<P> +In vain they urged him to sleep; in vain they gave him bromides. The +body was at rest; but the wheels of the brain whirred as busily as +ever, and as logically. No hint of delirium mingled with his thought +processes. It might have saved something if there had. +</P> + +<P> +Then, one day, Weldon sat up for an hour. The next day, he was put +into his clothes and, three days later, supported on the strong arm +of Kruger Bobs, he crawled into a hospital train bound for Cape +Town. It was an order, and he obeyed. Nevertheless, he shrank from +the very mention of Cape Town. It had been the core of his universe; +but now the core had gone bad. But his time of service had expired. +Red tape demanded that he receive the papers for his discharge from +the Cape Town citadel. That done, he would take the first outgoing +steamer for London. Afterwards, he would leave his life in the hands +of Fate. He took no note of the fact that Fate might step into the +game earlier than he then foresaw. +</P> + +<P> +For full seven hundred miles, the train lumbered on to the +southward. It was tedious, exhausting; yet Weldon found a certain +interest in the jar of the rolling wheels to which he fitted the +measure of his whirring thoughts. As long as the rhythm of the +wheels lasted, his thoughts slowed down to meet their time. When the +train halted, his thoughts dashed off again; but they resumed their +slower course as soon as the wheels began once more. He took no note +of the country about him, as they passed from veldt to karroo, from +karroo to the coast plateau, and from the coast plateau down across +the Cape Flats, sparsely covered with pipe grass and acacias. Then, +as Table Mountain and the Devil's Peak lifted themselves on his +right hand, he knew that Cape Town was near, and he braced himself +to go through what was before him. +</P> + +<P> +Kruger Bobs eyed him anxiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Boss sick," he announced for the dozenth time, as the train drew in +at the Adderley Street station. "Boss berry sick mans. Boss go hotel +soon." +</P> + +<P> +But Weldon shook his head. Even now, rest had scant space in his +plans, least of all, rest in Cape Town. +</P> + +<P> +"I can do it," he asserted resolutely. "Steady me till I get +started, Kruger Bobs. Then I shall astonish you by my agility." +</P> + +<P> +"Boss go hotel," Kruger Bobs muttered in low-voiced mutiny. "Boss +too sick to trek." +</P> + +<P> +"No fear. Did you ever know me to give out, when there was something +still to be done, Kruger Bobs?" +</P> + +<P> +"What Boss do?" +</P> + +<P> +"My discharge. My banker. My passage home." +</P> + +<P> +The arm of Kruger Bobs tightened about the bony figure of his +master, but the pressure of his strong arm was only gentle and +reassuring, and the great, white-ringed eyes glittered wet. This was +not the boy master to whom Kruger Bobs had sworn allegiance. This +was an older man, and weak withal. But the weaker grew the master, +the stronger grew the loyal, loving allegiance of the man. +</P> + +<P> +After the wide, deserted stretches of open veldt, the roar of +Adderley Street seemed to Weldon like the maddening tumult of +Piccadilly. The noise stunned him; the hurrying crowd filled him +with terror. Even inside the cab, he still clung to the arm of the +faithful Kruger Bobs. Still clinging to that faithful arm, he came +out from the citadel, no longer Trooper Weldon, but Mr. Harvard +Weldon once more, honorably discharged from the South African Light +Horse. Kruger Bobs was invisible behind the spreading limits of his +smile; but Weldon had scarcely heeded the words which had been +addressed to him. All at once, like a watch about to run down, the +wheels of his brain were moving slowly and ever more slowly. His +whole resolution now centered in keeping them in motion long enough +to go to his banker and to the office of the steamship company. Once +on the steamer and sliding out across Table Bay, he could leave the +rest to the ship's doctor and to Fate. +</P> + +<P> +Even in the multitude of strangers who had passed through Cape Town, +in those latter months, he was remembered at the bank and greeted +with a word of congratulation on his record in the field. At the +word, a man beside him, hearing, turned to look, looked again, and +then held out his hand. It was the father of Ethel Dent. +</P> + +<P> +That night, the Dents dined alone. Over the roast, Mr. Dent looked +up suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"Whom do you think I saw, to-day, Ethel?" +</P> + +<P> +"Who now?" she asked, smiling. "You can't expect me to guess, when +you are constantly running up against the most impossible people." +"Not this time. It was quite possible; but it gave me a shock. It +was Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +The smile died from her lips. Nevertheless, she asked, with a forced +lightness,— +</P> + +<P> +"What shocked you?" +</P> + +<P> +"His looks. He was ghastly, thin to a shadow and burning up with +fever. I was in the bank, and I heard some one speak his name; but I +had to look at him for a second time, before I could recognize him. +The man is a wreck. He looked sixty years old, as he went crawling +off, on the arm of his Kaffir boy. I'm sorry. I always liked +Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +A bit of bread lay by Ethel's plate. For an instant, her finger tips +vanished inside its yielding surface. Then she looked up. +</P> + +<P> +"Too bad! He was a good fellow," she said quietly. Then she lifted +her hand to her throat. "Dear me! Have I lost my diamond pin?" she +added hastily. "I was sure I put it on. Please excuse me, while I +see if I left it in my room." And she ran swiftly out of the room. +</P> + +<P> +Mrs. Dent broke the pause. +</P> + +<P> +"Where was Mr. Weldon going?" +</P> + +<P> +"To his hotel. I came out, just as they drove away, and I heard the +boy give the order to the driver." +</P> + +<P> +"Which hotel was it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I—Really, I don't remember. He used to go to the Grand." +</P> + +<P> +"He seemed ill?" +</P> + +<P> +"He seemed—" For an instant, Mr. Dent held the word in suspension. +Then he let it drop with a slow quietness which added tenfold to its +weight—"dead." +</P> + +<P> +His wife's gentle eyes clouded. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry. I liked the boy. He was good to me." +</P> + +<P> +"I had thought Ethel liked him, too," her husband added a little +inconsequently. +</P> + +<P> +"So she did in a way. But there have been so many others." The +mother sighed slightly. In her young days, there had been but one. +Now, remembering that one and watching him in the present, she found +it hard to comprehend Ethel's free-handed distribution of social +favors among so great a throng of admirers. There had always been +many; now, since her recent return from Johannesburg, the many had +become a multitude, and each of the multitude could show proof of +her liking. But Mrs. Dent recurred to the fact of Weldon's illness. +</P> + +<P> +"Poor boy! Fancy being really ill, so far from home and in a hotel!" +she added slowly. +</P> + +<P> +"It is one of the risks of a soldier," her husband reminded her. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and the soldiers fought for us. Where would your mines have +been without them?" she suggested in return. "I really wish you +would telephone to the hotel and find out something more definite +about him." +</P> + +<P> +Her husband looked covetously at the entree, just appearing in +sight. +</P> + +<P> +"Now?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +She ignored the mockery of his tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, please," she assented quietly. "It will only take you a +minute." +</P> + +<P> +It took him ten. When he came back into the room, his hat was in his +hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I think I will go over to the Grand for a minute," he explained. "I +don't quite like what I hear." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you hear?" +</P> + +<P> +In the dim upper hallway, a girlish figure leaned far over the +railing and strained her ears for the reply. Then, noiselessly, the +door of her room shut again behind her. +</P> + +<P> +"They tell me," Mr. Dent was saying; "that Weldon is there, +unconscious in his room. The boy brought him into the house in his +arms, and they have sent for Dr. Wright. It is a bad case of +enteric, mixed with some trouble with the brain. He appears to be +suffering from nervous shock, they say, increased by a long strain +of anxiety." +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later, he was called from Weldon's room to speak to his +wife at the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," he answered her. "It is as bad as I heard, as bad as it can +be. You think so? Are you strong enough? Sure? Hold the wire, then, +till I ask the doctor." The interval was short; and he went on +again, "The doctor says he can be moved now, but not later. It may +be a matter of weeks. How soon can you be ready? Very well. Will you +be sure to save yourself all you can? In an hour, then. And the +doctor will have a nurse waiting there? And can you put the boy into +some corner? He would be frantic, if we tried to leave him behind. +Very well. Yes." And the telephone rang off. +</P> + +<P> +It was midnight before the Dent household was fully reconstructed. +Upstairs in the great eastern front room, a white-capped nurse was +bending above the unconscious man in the bed; downstairs in the +kitchen, the tears of Kruger Bobs were mingling with the cold roast +beef on the table before him. The doctor had just gone away, and in +the room underneath the sickroom, Mr. Dent and his wife were quietly +laying plans to meet the needs of the changed routine which had +fallen upon their home. He looked up, as Ethel came slowly into the +room. +</P> + +<P> +"By the way, Ethel, I forgot to ask you before; but did you find +your pin?" +</P> + +<P> +She looked at him wonderingly. Her face was pale and drawn; but her +eyes were shining like the gems she had professed to miss. +</P> + +<P> +"What pin do you mean?" she asked blankly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap25"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE +</H3> + +<P> +"Don't wait any longer, Carew. Really, it's not worth while." +</P> + +<P> +"Too late for us to part company now," Carew answered serenely. +</P> + +<P> +"I know. You've stood by me like a good fellow; but it will be some +time yet before I can sail. And you know you are in a hurry to get +away." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be too sure of that," Carew advised him. "All my good things +aren't at one end of the world." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's lips curled into the ghost of his old smile. +</P> + +<P> +"Then take one of them along with you," he suggested. +</P> + +<P> +Elbows on knees and chin on fists joined knuckle to knuckle, Carew +turned and smiled blandly down at the face on the pillow. +</P> + +<P> +"Weldon, for a man who has been off his head for a month, you do +have singularly wise ideas. But do you suppose she'd go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Which?" +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Mellen, of course. It's a question of ages. Young Mahomet is +easier to move than the everlasting hills." +</P> + +<P> +"Meaning your mother? She would thank you." "She will thank me, when +she sees Alice," Carew responded hopefully. "But, honor bright, do +you suppose Miss Mellen would go back with me?" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought she promised." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but now," Carew persisted, with the eagerness of a boy. "Right +off, next month." +</P> + +<P> +"There's only one way to tell; ask her," Weldon answered. "If she is +the girl I think she is, she will say yes." +</P> + +<P> +"You do like her; don't you, Weldon?" The eagerness was still in his +tone. +</P> + +<P> +"Intensely," Weldon replied quietly. "I have seen few women I have +liked as well." +</P> + +<P> +"What larks we'll be having, this time next year, talking it all +over together," Carew said, in a sudden, thoughtful burst of +prophecy. "By the time we get home, we shall forget the blood and +the dog-biscuit, and only remember the skittles and beer. If only—" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" Weldon looked up at him without flinching. +</P> + +<P> +Carew did flinch, however. +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing," he said hastily. "One is never quite content, you know." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon drew a deep, slow breath. +</P> + +<P> +"No," he echoed. "One is never quite content." +</P> + +<P> +Carew crossed his legs, as he settled back in his chair. +</P> + +<P> +"Mayhap. Some of us ought to be, though." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. You're a lucky fellow, Carew." +</P> + +<P> +"So are you. The trouble is, one never knows when he is well off." +</P> + +<P> +"But we all know when we aren't," Weldon replied succinctly. +</P> + +<P> +Carew's glance was expressive, as it roved about the luxurious room, +with the bed drawn up near the window which looked out, between the +branches of an ancient oak tree, on the blue waters of Table Bay and +on the fringe of shipping by the Docks far to the eastward. Faintly +from the room below came the sound of a piano and of a hushed +girlish voice singing softly to itself. +</P> + +<P> +"It all depends on one's point of view," Carew said, after an +interval. "I am living in a seven-by-nine room in a hotel, and Miss +Mellen is seventy-two miles and three quarters away. Weldon, you are +a lucky dog, if you did but know it." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon shut his teeth for a moment. Then he said quietly,— +</P> + +<P> +"Carew, it is five weeks that I have been in this house. Mr. Dent +and dear little Mother Dent have been angel-good to me. Miss Dent—" +He hesitated. +</P> + +<P> +"Has been an archangel?" Carew supplemented calmly. +</P> + +<P> +"Has never once come into my sight." +</P> + +<P> +Deliberately, forcefully, the next words dropped from Carew's +tongue. "The—devil—she—hasn't!" +</P> + +<P> +"No." +</P> + +<P> +Then Weldon waited for Carew to speak; but Carew merely sat and +stared at his friend in speechless stupefaction. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Lord!" he blurted out at last. "Then you haven't made it up?" +</P> + +<P> +"There was nothing to make up," Weldon said drearily. +</P> + +<P> +Again Carew's elbows came down on his knees with a bump. +</P> + +<P> +"There was, too!" he contradicted, with an explosiveness which +irresistibly reminded Weldon of their kindergarten days. +</P> + +<P> +"What makes you think so?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think. I know." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you know?" Weldon asked listlessly. +</P> + +<P> +"Alice Mellen told me," Carew replied conclusively. +</P> + +<P> +"Told you what?" +</P> + +<P> +"That Cooee Dent is in love with you." +</P> + +<P> +From his superior knowledge, Weldon stared disdainfully up at him. +</P> + +<P> +"Then there is one thing that Alice Mellen doesn't know." +</P> + +<P> +"She does, then. She told me about it, when you went off on your +feed, up at Lindley," Carew explained hurriedly. "I was worried +about you, and she was worried about Miss Dent, and we compared +notes. You hadn't said a word of any kind; we could only guess at +things, so we wrote to each other about it. She told me then about +Miss Dent's dashing up to Johannesburg after Vlaakfontein." +</P> + +<P> +"She went to see her cousin." +</P> + +<P> +"She also went to see you." +</P> + +<P> +Carew's emphatic pause was broken by the coming of the nurse, who +bent over the bed, raising her brows inquiringly, as she laid two +fingers on Weldon's wrist. Carew took the obvious hint. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope I've not stopped too long," he said, as he rose. "It has +been good to see Mr. Weldon. May I come again?" +</P> + +<P> +The nurse was a true woman. Therefore she smiled back into his +happy, handsome face. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you may," she answered. "Mr. Weldon is tired now, but you +evidently have done him good." +</P> + +<P> +Carew meditated aloud, as he went away down the walk. +</P> + +<P> +"Out of every five women, three are cats," he observed tranquilly to +himself. "I've cornered the fourth. It remains to be seen whether +Weldon is cornered by the fifth, or only the third. Hasn't been to +see him! Little beast! But I'll bet any amount of gold money that +she has done endless messing for him on the sly." +</P> + +<P> +Carew's words showed that it is usually not the man in love with a +woman who is the shrewdest judge of the hidden recesses of that +woman's nature. The fact was, Ethel had slaved unceasingly, but +unseen, for the patient above stairs. See him she would not. Day +after day, she invented fresh excuses to ward off her mother's +suggestions of a call on the invalid; but also, day by day, she +invented fresh delicacies to tempt the appetite dulled by months of +army biscuit and bully beef. And, meanwhile, she was waiting. +</P> + +<P> +Rather to her surprise, no message came down to her from the +invalid's room. She had supposed as a matter of course that Weldon +would intuitively recognize the source of the dainties which reached +him anonymously. Man-fashion, however, he could see no reason that +his beef tea and his wine jelly should be the work of different +hands. He devoured them both, and reflected thankfully upon the +skill of the Kaffir cook. Mr. Dent had been scrupulously literal in +carrying out the commands laid upon him by his daughter. He had left +in Weldon's mind no doubt whatsoever about the truth of his +statement that Mrs. Dent alone had been responsible for the +invalid's present quarters. Weldon had lavished thanks upon Mrs. +Dent, and she had received them without demur, as her own lawful +property. Even now, he was at a loss whether his recovery was more +owing to Mrs. Dent or to the nurse. Each had given to him a large +share of her vitality. +</P> + +<P> +From a distance, he could follow Ethel's doings, could assure +himself that his presence was no apparent check upon her happiness. +Now it was the muffled whirr of the bell, followed by low voices +from the room beneath. Now it was the roll of the carriage, bearing +her away to dine or to dance, and leaving Weldon to lie and count +the minutes until she returned. Now it was her light footstep on the +stairs, or, but this was only at long intervals, her hushed voice in +the hallway outside his door. At first, he used to lie and hold his +breath, while he waited for her to open the door of his room. By +degrees, however, he ceased to expect her. And, as the expectation +died away, he chafed increasingly at the slowness of his recovery. +Anything to get out of that house! She treated him as he would have +scorned to treat an invalid dog who had taken refuge in his stable. +</P> + +<P> +All this came slowly. For two endless weeks, Weldon lay unconscious. +For two more endless weeks, he raved in delirium. Happily, his nurse +was a discreet woman. She discouraged the visits of Mrs. Dent and +her husband, offered the excuse that strange faces excited the +invalid, and only admitted them during his brief intervals of sleep. +Meanwhile, she used all her professional principles to keep herself +from trying to solve the problem before her eyes. Upstairs was a man +sick unto death, a man who raved ceaselessly of the daughter of the +house. Downstairs, the daughter of the house was going her +accustomed way, with never a question in regard to the man above. +What had happened? How, if anything had happened, how did he chance +to be in that home, with Mrs. Dent as his devoted and anxious slave? +Resolutely, she fell to studying her temperature charts. Her +specialty was fever, not heart disease. +</P> + +<P> +A week after the tide had turned, Carew had been allowed to spend a +short half-hour with the invalid. The next day, by advice of the +nurse, Mr. Dent telephoned to him to come again. Something, whether +in his personality or in his talk, had been of tonic power over +Weldon. It seemed wise to repeat the experiment. +</P> + +<P> +Carew came on the heels of his own voice through the telephone; and +his face was smiling broadly, as he went leaping up the stairs. +After all, it had not been in vain, his quixotic lingering in Cape +Town for a weary month after receiving his discharge. Weldon and he +had been good friends through thick and thin; it would have been +beastly to leave him. And now, after all these useless weeks, he +could at least do something to lighten the convalescence. Moreover, +Carew's pocket held three letters, received that very noon; one of +grudging approval from his son-sick mother, one of chaotic, but +heartfelt thanks from Mrs. Weldon, and the third one an affirmative +answer to a telegram he had sent to Alice Mellen, only the night +before. He went into Weldon's room, looking, as he felt, the +embodiment of happiness and health. +</P> + +<P> +He hailed Weldon from the threshold. Tidings like his could wait +during no interchange of mere conventional greetings. Weldon heard +him to the end, congratulated him, demanded the repetition of all +the details. Then, when Carew's excitement had quite spent itself, +Weldon drew a letter from underneath his pillow. +</P> + +<P> +"It came, this morning," he added laconically. +</P> + +<P> +Carew seized the letter and ran his eye down the page. Then his face +lighted. +</P> + +<P> +"Nunc dimittis!" he said piously. "It's sure to be yours! Have you +told Miss Dent?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've not seen Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +Carew's face fell. +</P> + +<P> +"Not yet? But you will. And then you will tell her?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's lips straightened into a thin line. He shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"But she ought to know." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is her right." +</P> + +<P> +"Why?" Weldon asked again. +</P> + +<P> +"Because—it is. It might make some difference in—" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon stopped him abruptly. +</P> + +<P> +"It could make no difference, Carew. In facing the main question, +such things as that don't count. Even if they did, though," he rose +on his elbow and faced his friend steadily; "even if they did, I +would never consent to try to bribe a girl into loving me, by +telling her I had won the V. C. It will be time enough for Miss Dent +to hear of it, when it is given." +</P> + +<P> +"But you will be in England then," Carew objected practically. +</P> + +<P> +Weldon lay down again and drew the sheet upward till its shadow lay +across his lips. +</P> + +<P> +"What matter?" he answered slowly. "And, besides, Miss Dent isn't +the girl to be won in any such way as that. Hers is a love to be +given, not bought." +</P> + +<P> +Half an hour later, Carew met Ethel on the stairs. As he halted to +speak to her, he was shocked at the look in her face. The lips were +smiling; but the eyes were the eyes of a hunted animal. +</P> + +<P> +"So long since we have met!" he said, as he took her hand. "And so +much has happened." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I have been hoping to congratulate you," she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"It was a stunning letter you wrote me," he said boyishly. "I +suppose we are cousins now." +</P> + +<P> +Then there came a little pause. Before either of them quite realized +it, the pause had lengthened until it was hard to break. +</P> + +<P> +"I have been up to see the invalid," he blurted out at last. +</P> + +<P> +"How is he?" the girl inquired courteously. +</P> + +<P> +"Better." Then a sudden note of resentment crept into Carew's honest +voice. "He is counting the days now before he can be moved. He says +your mother has been wonderfully good to him." +</P> + +<P> +The girl stood aside to let Carew pass her by. +</P> + +<P> +"She is good to everybody," she assented quietly. "I hope Mr. Weldon +won't think of going away until he can be moved with perfect safety. +It is really no trouble to have him here, and the nurse is very +capable." +</P> + +<P> +And Carew bowed in agreement. Once outside the door, however, he +freed his mind, tersely and with vigor. +</P> + +<P> +"Damn the nurse!" he said to the oak tree, as he passed it. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap26"></A> +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX +</H3> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + "There's a true Heart in the West World, that is beating<BR> + still for me,<BR> + Ever praying in the twilight once again my face to see.<BR> + Oh, the World is good and gladsome, with its Love both<BR> + East and West,<BR> + But there's ever one love only that is still the First and Best."<BR> +</P> + +<P> +The low voice died away. A moment later, Ethel Dent pushed open one +of the long windows of the drawing-room and stepped out on the +veranda. The flower-boxes were filled with limp stalks, chilled by +the frost of the previous night; but the sun lay warm over the wide, +white steps, over the lawn and over the bay beyond. She stood for a +moment, staring thoughtfully out across the bay; then she moved on +to the western end of the veranda, looked up at Table Mountain with +its cloth of cloud, and then dropped down into one of the chairs +which still remained in the sunny corner. +</P> + +<P> +That corner held many memories for her. She had sought it now +unconsciously; yet, once there, she lingered, although for weeks +past she had been seeking to banish those memories from her life. +Why keep them? They belonged to a chapter that was dead and gone. +Better to seal its pages and never break the seal. Better never to +reread what had been written there. If she had been mistaken in +giving her love where it was not desired, not only should the world +never be aware of the fact; but she herself would ignore the +existence of that mistake. She had loved Weldon with all the energy +of her headstrong, girlish nature. She had supposed that he had +loved her in return. Instead of that, he had gone away and left her +without a word, just when her need for him was the greatest. No man +in his senses could have seen the agony of that last hour she had +spent with Captain Frazer, and failed to understand the pitiful, +appealing look she had cast upon him. Unable to escape the agony, +she had given this tacit call to Weldon to share it with her, to +understand, and to forgive. She had been sure she could trust him; +but it was evident that she had trusted him in vain. In the hour of +her supremest need, he had gone away and left her alone. No man who +cared for her could have forsaken her in such a crisis as that. Her +lips curved into a hard little smile, as she sat rocking to and fro +in the sunshine, and, going back over a past which she had rarely +allowed herself to reopen. +</P> + +<P> +And afterwards? Afterwards Fate had been all against her. It had +been easy to escape from her engagement at Johannesburg, +comparatively easy to shut the past experience into the inner places +of her mind, to close her lips with the show of a smile, and to +plunge into a whirl of social life which should leave her no time +for quiet thought. So long as she kept her secret to herself, it +mattered nothing to the girl that it was eating pitilessly at her +vitality, that it was ever hard and harder for her to keep up her +ceaseless round of gayety. +</P> + +<P> +And then, all at once, their home life had been invaded by the man +who was never absent from her thoughts. In a sense, she was glad of +the invasion. It proved to her, more surely than any words could +have done, that she had kept her secret well and beyond suspicion. +Had her mother gained any inkling of the true state of the case, +Harvard Weldon would never have been brought away from the room at +the Grand. For so much surety, Ethel Dent could rejoice with a +thankful heart. Nevertheless, as the days passed by, Weldon's +presence in the house increased the strain tenfold. Night after +night, Ethel had crept noiselessly from her room across the hallway +and crouched outside his door, listening for any sounds from within +which might tell her that all was well with the man whom she would +not see. Day after day, she forced her life to run along in its +usual grooves, going out of the house with a laugh on her lips and, +in her heart, the sickening dread of the tidings which might greet +her upon her return. Again and again, as she passed the door left +open during the nurse's temporary absence from the room, she put +forth all her strength to keep herself from stealing in, to look +just once on the unconscious face of the man who had made her +whole life. But she held herself in check, and never once yielded to +the temptation. Well she might hold herself in check. She realized +only too keenly that, once face to face with Weldon, she would have +to do over again all the weary work of those weeks of self-repression. +</P> + +<P> +Then the stupor had given place to delirium; and, even in her room +and behind her closed door, she could hear the low, muttering voice. +After that, she crouched no more outside his room. It would have +been impossible for her to say just what it was that she dreaded to +hear. Nevertheless, she closed her ears as resolutely as she closed +her door; but, when she met the nurse on the stairs, she hurried +onward with her face turned away and her cheeks ablaze. +</P> + +<P> +And then in its turn the delirium had ended. From that time forward, +Ethel went out more constantly than ever. When she was in the house, +she started and grew red or pale at every unexpected step. Now, at +any hour, there might come a summons for her to go to the invalid's +room. She went over in detail every possible reply she could make to +every possible word which Weldon might say. She held herself ready +for any emergency. But the days dragged away, and no emergency had +come. +</P> + +<P> +And then, as it had chanced, she had been away from home, when +Weldon had finally left the house. It had been the fulfilment of an +old promise which had taken her to spend two days with a friend in +Newlands. She had had no notion that the time for Weldon's going +away was at hand. Neither, on the other hand, had Weldon any idea +that Ethel was absent from home. He had merely taken advantage of +the first day when the doctor had ceased to oppose his removal. It +had been to him a cruel disappointment that Mrs. Dent had stood +alone on the steps to watch his departure. +</P> + +<P> +That was three weeks before. Ethel had supposed that Weldon would +sail for home at once. He had supposed so, too, until all at once he +had found it impossible to turn his back upon Cape Town and all it +held. Deep down in his heart was the memory of Carew's words, +assuring him of the reason of Ethel's sudden journey to Johannesburg +after the fight at Vlaakfontein. The episode was now far away in the +past. It might chance, however, that something of the old mood might +linger in her mind. Carew had felt sure of her love for him. Perhaps +she had loved him once, before the Captain had won the first place +in her heart. Perhaps—He had grown dizzy and had grasped the edge +of the pillow to steady himself, the first time the idea had dawned +upon him—Perhaps, now that the Captain had gone beyond the reach of +human love, he might win her to care for himself once more. The +chance appeared to him to be wellnigh impossible; yet, while it +lingered in his mind, he could not force himself to go away from +Cape Town. +</P> + +<P> +The worst of his convalescence was ended, before he was allowed to +leave the Dents' home. He strained every nerve to hasten his full +recovery. The path of Ethel Dent was not parallel to the course of +any semi-invalid. If he were to meet her at all, it must be as a man +in full health. By degrees, the color came back to his face, his +lean figure lost something of its lankness, his tread grew firmer +and more alert. But the old shadow still lingered in his eyes; the +strained lines about his lips did not relax. Weldon's mental healing +kept no pace with his physical one. +</P> + +<P> +By degrees, too, his table littered itself with cards of invitation. +As yet, he felt himself too weak for any but the most informal +functions; and Carew, always at his elbow, assured him from his own +experience that informality, just then, was an unknown word in the +social vocabulary of Cape Town. Carew, bidden on all sides, was +dividing his time between his convalescent friend and the gayeties +of early winter. He dined and danced almost without ceasing; and, in +the intervals of his dining and dancing, he told over to Weldon all +the details of his social career. And these details largely +concerned themselves with Ethel Dent: how she looked, what she wore, +what she said, with whom she danced and with whom she sat it out. +And, as he listened, Weldon made up his mind that, for him, the time +for resting at home was ended. It was better, easier to go to see +for himself than it was to sit at home and imagine things, or to +hear about them, after they had happened. There was to be a +reception at the Citadel, next week. He would begin with that. +</P> + +<P> +One resolution led to the next. Only two days after he had +determined upon the reception, he ordered Kruger Bobs to saddle the +gray broncho and to attend him upon The Nig. Then, when the noon sun +lay warm over the city, he mounted and, with Kruger Bobs behind him, +he rode slowly down Adderley Street to the water front, and turned +eastward to the home of the Dents. +</P> + +<P> +The wide veranda and the great white pillars seemed like home to +him, in all truth. That house had been the scene of some of his best +hours, as of his worst ones, and his heart pounded madly against his +ribs as he caught sight of its familiar outlines. Then he drew in +his breath sharply and bore down hard in his stirrups, while his +face went white to the lips. From the western end of the veranda a +girlish figure had risen, halted for a moment with the sun beating +full upon her vivid hair; then, heedless of the distant riders, it +had turned and disappeared within the doorway. +</P> + +<P> +The maid's face brightened, as she met Weldon at the door. "But Mrs. +Dent is not at home," she said, with honest regret in her voice. +"She has gone out of town." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon controlled his own voice as best he might. +</P> + +<P> +"And Miss Dent?" he asked. +</P> + +<P> +However, the maid had just broken the Baden-Powell tea-cup. Its +fragments were still upon the floor, and she had no mind, just then, +to face her young mistress. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Dent is not at home," she answered, with glib mendacity. And +then she wondered why it was that Weldon's pallor turned from white +to gray, as he went away down the steps. +</P> + +<P> +Nevertheless, he fulfilled his resolution of going to the reception +at the Citadel. For one reason, he had given his word to Carew. +Moreover, he felt that, for the honor of his manhood, he must accept +his fate like a man. Four months before that time, Ethel Dent had +stabbed him almost to the death. Now, with delicate precision, she +had struck him full across the face. The touch had hurt him far more +than the deeper wound had done; but, at least, she should never be +aware of it. To his mind, she had forfeited all right to the +knowledge. +</P> + +<P> +He dressed with careful precision. More than once he was forced to +sit down for a moment; more than once his fingers refused to do his +bidding and his hands dropped inertly at his side. However, Carew +found him waiting, hat in hand, and together they drove away to the +Citadel. +</P> + +<P> +Already, when they reached the door, the reception was nearing its +highest tide. The rooms were bright with uniforms and with trailing +gowns, gay with the hum of voices; and the lilt of a waltz came +softly to them from across the distance. As they halted on the +threshold, Weldon lifted his eyes and suddenly found them resting +full upon Ethel Dent. The girl was quite at the farther end of the +long room, the central figure of a little throng, and wholly +unconscious of their presence. Her back was towards Weldon. He could +only see the sweep of her shimmering gown, the heavy coils of yellow +hair and the curve of one rounding cheek; yet, even in that partial +view, he felt himself astounded at her vitality. It flashed until it +dazzled him, and the dazzle hurt. He bowed to the governor and +turned away into another room, striving, as he went, to account for +the sudden depression which had fallen upon him. He had not expected +to find Ethel Dent moping alone in a corner; neither had he looked +for a radiant alertness such as he had never seen in her before. +During the long weeks of his illness, his mental picture of her had +been colored by the sadness of their last meeting. Now the picture +was torn aside and a new one thrust into its place, and the new one +seemed garish to his weary nerves. +</P> + +<P> +"Weldon! Have you risen from the grave?" +</P> + +<P> +He turned sharply, to find himself face to face with the captain of +his former troop. +</P> + +<P> +"Merely from hospital," he answered. "I have been lying up for +repairs." +</P> + +<P> +The other man nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"I know; and thereby adding to the glamour which surrounds a man +elect for the V. C. Are you all right again?" +</P> + +<P> +Weldon's voice hardened to match the strain he was putting upon his +control. +</P> + +<P> +"Absolutely. I am sailing for home, next week." +</P> + +<P> +"And taking a farewell view of the place, before you go? Then come +to meet the prettiest girl in Cape Town." +</P> + +<P> +For an instant, Weldon hesitated. Then, reassured by the direction +taken by his guide, he followed, while the strains of the waltz came +ever more distinctly to his ears. His companion craned his neck to +reconnoitre. +</P> + +<P> +"She is dancing now; but she will be through in a moment. There," he +added, as the music rose to a crashing finale; "that is over, and, +by George, here she is! Miss Dent, may I introduce another war-worn +veteran, Mr. Weldon?" +</P> + +<P> +The shock came so suddenly that neither of them had an opportunity +to prepare to resist it. It was Weldon who spoke first, however, and +his voice was level, for he was generous enough to take none of the +advantage which so plainly was all upon his side. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Dent and I are old acquaintances," he said quietly. +</P> + +<P> +Fortunately the captain was garrulous. +</P> + +<P> +"Another proof of the smallness of the world," he said jovially. "In +time, I shall learn the futility of introductions. One is always +pointing out next-door neighbors to each other's notice. By the way, +Weldon, didn't you know Frazer rather well? I used to meet him at +your house so often, Miss Dent." +</P> + +<P> +Ethel's fingers shut upon the sticks of her fan. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," she assented. "Captain Frazer was one of our best friends." +</P> + +<P> +All at once, the face of the young captain grew grave. +</P> + +<P> +"I remember now," he said quite slowly. "But his loss was a sorrow +to us all. His place can never be entirely filled." +</P> + +<P> +There came a momentary pause. Then, as the captain's broad shoulders +vanished in the heart of the crowd, Weldon turned and looked Ethel +squarely between the eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"Believe me, Miss Dent," he said simply; "this is none of my doing." +</P> + +<P> +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. Instead of that, her +quiet voice was full of bitterness, as she gave brief answer,— +</P> + +<P> +"Quite obviously, Mr. Weldon." +</P> + +<P> +"Thank you for doing me that justice," he said, after an instant +when their meeting eyes flashed like meeting blades of steel. +"Stuart had no notion that he was making a mess of things." +</P> + +<P> +She faced him a little proudly. +</P> + +<P> +"I am unable to see what mess he can have made, Mr. Weldon. It is +always a pleasure to meet an old acquaintance." +</P> + +<P> +Few things could have hurt him more than the icy conventionality of +her words. All the gentler side of his nature was crying out for +mercy; but he smothered its cries and faced her bravely, praying the +while for some one to come to them and end the scene. The Ethel Dent +he had known in the old days had been a woman of flesh and blood; +this was a statue of marble, polished and beautiful, but cold +withal. He could only seek to meet her with equal coldness, then +make his escape to nurse his wounds unseen. Nevertheless, in spite +of his resolutions to the contrary, a sudden heat crept into his +answering words, +</P> + +<P> +"But I thought you had annulled the acquaintance." +</P> + +<P> +She looked up at him in mute surprise. Then, mustering her pride, +she forced herself to smile. +</P> + +<P> +"I?" she answered lightly. "Oh, no, I am only too proud to count a +V. C. among my friends." +</P> + +<P> +He waited until the last word had dropped from her lips, waited +until the silence had dropped over the last word. Then he faced her +yet once again. This time, there was determination in his eyes, +determination and a great, indomitable love. +</P> + +<P> +"Ethel," he said imperiously; "for God's sake, stop fencing with me, +and have it out. Remember it is now, or never." +</P> + +<P> +The color mounted swiftly across her face, then faded, and even to +her own ears her laugh failed to ring true. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry; but I fear it is impossible. Here comes Colonel +Andersen for his dance." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon faced about. +</P> + +<P> +"Colonel Andersen, Miss Dent is longing for an ice," he said, with a +sudden masterful quietness. "May I take a convalescent's privilege +and ask you to bring it to her?" Then he turned back to Ethel. +"Come," he bade her. +</P> + +<P> +"Where?" she protested; but she yielded to his stronger will and +followed him across the floor towards a deserted corner of the room. +</P> + +<P> +"Anywhere, where we can talk for a moment," he answered her, with +the same dominant quietness. Then, while they halted beside an open +window, he bent forward and laid his hand upon hers, as it rested +upon the sill. "Ethel," he added; "I am going home, next week. I may +never see South Africa again. Before I go—" +</P> + +<P> +Quietly she withdrew her hand. "Before you go, you will come to say +good by to my mother, I hope," she said, with a steadiness which +gave no hint of the tears behind her lowered lids. +</P> + +<P> +Impatiently he brushed her words aside. +</P> + +<P> +"That is for you to say. First of all, I must know one thing." +</P> + +<P> +Her nerve was failing fast; but she still held to her resolve that +he should gain no hint of her weakness. She drew back a step, as if +his vehemence terrified her, yet she dared not raise her eyes to +his. It was all she could do to hold her voice in subjection. +</P> + +<P> +"And what is that?" she asked. +</P> + +<P> +He waited for an instant, before he answered her question. Her next +words might contain all, or nothing. His lips shut to a narrow line; +then he straightened his shoulders. +</P> + +<P> +"Ethel," he said rapidly; "I have been in a good many fights; I've +found that it hurts more to be mangled than it does to be killed. +Speak out, then, and end this thing once for all. Was it final, what +you said to the Captain, that day?" +</P> + +<P> +She bit her lip; but her voice would not come, and she could only +give a little, dreary nod. Weldon watched her steadily for a moment; +then he turned to go away. +</P> + +<P> +For another moment, Ethel stared after him, heedless now of the +drops that were sliding down her cheeks. Then, of a sudden, she +found her voice. "Wait!" she said, as she stepped forward with a +swift gesture which was wholly imploring, wholly feminine. "It may +have been final; but finality is not always truth." +</P> + +<P> +He halted at her words. +</P> + +<P> +"And you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"I mean," she answered him; "I mean that then, and now, and always, +I loved one man, and he—" she caught her breath; then she lifted +her head proudly; "was you. The rest was all a mistake; but I did +what I thought was best." +</P> + +<P> +Weldon bowed his head. +</P> + +<P> +"No matter now," he answered. +</P> + +<P> +Then, taking her hand, he led her back to the open window where they +stood together long, while, in the room beyond, an anxious colonel +threaded his way to and fro in the crowd, impatiently hunting the +partner in whose memory he had ceased to exist. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Firing Line, by +Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE *** + +***** This file should be named 3605-h.htm or 3605-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/3605/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: On the Firing Line + +Author: Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + +Posting Date: April 21, 2009 [EBook #3605] +Release Date: January, 2003 +First Posted: June 12, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + +ON THE FIRING LINE + + +by + +Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +Six feet one in his stockings, broad-shouldered and without an ounce +of extra flesh, Harvard Weldon suddenly halted before one of a line +of deck chairs. + +"I usually get what I want, Miss Dent," he observed suggestively. + +"You are more fortunate than most people." Her answering tone was dry. + +Most men would have been baffled by her apparent indifference. +Not so was Weldon. Secure in the possession of a good tailor and +an equally good digestion, he was willing to await the leisurely +course of events. + +"My doctor always advises mild exercise after lunch," he continued. + +"You are in the care of a physician?" she queried, with a whimsical +glance up at his brown face and athletic figure. + +"Not just now. I was once, however." She raised her brows in polite +interrogation. Her involuntary thawing of a moment before had given +place to absolute conventionality. Weldon smiled to himself, as he +noted the change. He had been at sea for three days now, and those +three days had been chiefly spent in trying to penetrate the social +shell of his next neighbor at table. It was not so much that Ethel +Dent was undeniably pretty as that he had been piqued by her frosty +reception of his efforts to supplement the services of a careless waiter. + +Now, uninvited, he dropped into the empty chair next her own. + +"If I may?" he said questioningly, as he raised his cap. "Yes, I +have had a doctor twice. Once was measles, once a collar bone broken +in football. Both times, I was urged to take a walk after luncheon. +Is Miss Arthur--?" + +He hesitated for the right word. Still ignoring his obvious hint, +Ethel Dent supplied the word, without charity for her luckless +chaperon. "Horridly seasick." She pointed out to the level +steely-gray sea. "And on this duck-pond," she added. + +Her accent was expressive. Weldon laughed. + +"Perhaps she isn't as used to the duck-pond as you are." + +The girl brushed a lock of vivid gold hair from her eyes; then she +sat up, to add emphasis to her words. "Miss Arthur has been to +America and back seven times and to Australia once," she said +conclusively. + +"As globe-trotter, or as commercial traveller?" + +"Neither. As professional chaperon. When she applied for me, she stated--" +The girl caught her breath and stopped short. + +"Well?" he asked encouragingly. She shook her head. Again, for an +instant, Weldon could see the humanity beneath the veneering. +Moreover, he liked what he saw. The blue eyes were honest and +steady. One mocking dimple belied the gravity of the firm lips. + +"What did she state?" he asked again. + +"It's not manners to tell tales about one's companion," she demurred. + +"Not if you spell it with a little c. With a capital, it becomes +professional, and you can say what you choose. Miss Arthur is +a righteous lady; nevertheless, she is a bit professional. +And you were saying that the lady stated--" + +"That she never had been seasick in her life." + +"Oh. And did she also produce certificates as to her moral +character? Or is fibbing merely bad form nowadays?" + +With swift inconsequence, the girl shifted to the other side of the +discussion. + +"Of course, this may be a first attack." + +"Of course," Weldon assented gravely. But again she shifted her +ground. "Only," she continued, with her eyes thoughtfully fixed on +the distant, impersonal point where sea and sky met; "only it is a +little strange that, yesterday, I heard her tell the stewardess she +never took beeftea when she was seasick." + +"Oh." Weldon's eyes joined hers on the sky-line. "I have heard of +similar cases before." + +"She offered to come on deck," Ethel went on quietly. "It was +generous of her, for she knew I was left entirely alone. +Nevertheless, I persuaded her that she was better off in her berth." + +Leaning back in the chair of the absent invalid, Weldon watched his +companion out of the corners of his eyes and rejoiced at the change +in her. Even while he rejoiced, he marvelled. A Canadian by birth +and education, he had rarely come in contact with English girls. At +first, he had been totally at a loss to account for the haughty +chill in the manner of this one. Grown accustomed to that, he was +still more at a loss to account for this sudden awakening into +humanity. He had as yet to learn that two days of having her only +companion seasick, coupled with a sparkling sun and a crisp breeze, +can rouse even a duenna-led English girl to the point of expressing +her opinions pithily and with vigor. + +As the Dunottar Castle had slid away from Southampton, three days +before, Weldon had tramped briskly up and down the crowded deck, +taking mental note of his companions for the next two weeks. Among +the caped and capped throng leaning over the rail and staring after +the receding shore with homesick eyes, he saw little to interest +him. Neither did the shore interest him in the least. His own +partings had come, two weeks before, when the steam yacht had put +back from Sandy Hook. Now, accordingly, he went in search of the +dining-room steward to whom he gave much gold and instruction. Then +he betook himself to his stateroom where his mates were already busy +settling their belongings. + +The luncheon hour disclosed the fact that the dining-room steward +had earned his money and had digested his instruction. A short pause +on the threshold informed Weldon that the Dunottar Castle held +exactly one pretty girl; the steward informed Weldon that the vacant +chair beside her was his own. Weldon picked up his napkin with a +brief prayer of thanksgiving. What if he was going out to Africa in +search of Boers and glory? There was no especial reason he should +not enjoy himself on the way. + +Weldon had gained a wide experience of American girls, well-bred, +well-chaperoned, nevertheless they offered possible points of +contact to the strangers with whom they were thrown. To all seeming, +Ethel Dent was as accessible as the outer wall of an ice palace. +Beside her decorous ignoring of his existence, Miss Arthur, lean and +spectacled and sniffy, appeared to be of maternal kindliness, albeit +her only advances had been a muffled request for the salt. The next +morning, Miss Arthur's chair had been empty, and her charge, left to +herself, had been more glacially circumspect than ever. Whatever +skittish traits the pair might develop, Weldon felt assured that +they would be solely upon the side of Miss Ophelia Arthur. + +Now, however, he was giving himself praise for his own astute +generalship. It was no slight matter, at the end of the third day, +to find himself sitting next to Miss Dent in the line of steamer +chairs and even bending over to pick up the novel she had dropped. +In his elation, Weldon neglected to give credit to Miss Arthur whose +digestive woes were the cause of the whole situation. Only the riper +Christianity which comes with declining years can make one wholly +loyal to a seasick comrade. + +He gave himself yet more praise, next morning at sunrise, when he +found himself pacing the deck at Ethel Dent's side. As a rule, he +and his mates rose betimes and, clad in slippers and pajamas, raced +up and down the decks to keep their muscles in hard order, before +descending for the tubbing which is the matin duty of every +self-respecting British subject. This morning, instead of the deserted +decks and the pajama-clad athletes, the passengers were out early to +catch the first glimpse of Madeira, and Weldon, starchy and glowing +with much cold water, was on deck to catch the first glimpse of +Ethel. + +Miss Arthur was still invisible, and the girl was discreetly late +about appearing. The deck was full, when at last she came in sight; +and it seemed, to her first glance, that she was the only unattended +person abroad, that morning. Her chin rose a little aggressively as +she moved forward. Then her eyes lighted. Cap in hand, Weldon stood +in her direct path. + +"Good morning," he said. "We've just passed the lighthouse and are +nearly opposite Canical. If you come over here, you can see it." + +His tone was matter-of-course, yet masterful. At the very beginning +of her fourth solitary day, Ethel admitted to herself that it was +good to have some one take possession of her in this summary +fashion. + +"Is Miss Arthur still unhappy?" he asked, as he swung into step at +her side. + +"Yes. She has taken to her hymnal, this morning, in search of +consolation. I tried to coax her to get up and go ashore; but she +said there was no use in experiencing the same woe twice." + +"I am afraid I do not quite catch the lady's line of argument," +Weldon remarked doubtfully. + +The girl laughed. Then she decorously checked her laugh and +endeavored to turn sympathetic once more. + +"She means to make one prolonged illness. Else she will only recover +in order to fall ill again." "Oh." Weldon's tone was still blank. +"And shall you go ashore?" + +She shook her head. + +"I am sorry. You would find any amount to see." + +"I am sorry, too," she said frankly. "Still, I don't see how I can, +without Miss Arthur." + +His hands in his pockets, Weldon took a dozen steps in doubtful +silence. + +"I'll tell you what we can do, Miss Dent: Harry Carew, one of the +fellows going out with me, had a note of introduction to Colonel +Scott and his wife. He is the pompous old Englishman across the +table. I'll get Carew to introduce us, and perhaps they will let us +go ashore with them." + +"But are they going?" she asked irresolutely. + +"Surely. We have three hours here. I know Carew's mother well; she +and Mrs. Scott were schoolmates at Madame Prather's in London." + +She looked up with sudden interest. + +"Madame Prather's? That is where I have been, for the past five +years." + +"Then we are all right," Weldon said coolly. "The arrangement is +made. Carew is the only missing link. Excuse me, and I will go in +search of him." + +It was high noon when the Dunottar Castle finally weighed anchor at +Funchal and started on her long, unbroken voyage to the southward. +Side by side in the stern, Weldon and Ethel looked back at the blue +harbor dotted with the myriad little boats, at the quaint town +backed with its amphitheatre of sunlit hills and, poised on the +summit, the church where Nossa Senhora do Monte keeps watch and ward +over the town beneath. Ethel's experience was the broader for her +hilarious ride in a bullock-drawn palanquin. Weldon's experience was +more instructive. It taught him that, her hat awry and her yellow +hair loosened about her laughing face, Ethel Dent was tenfold more +attractive than when she made her usual decorous entrance to the +dining-room. + +Mrs. Scott had been a willing chaperon and an efficient one. +Nevertheless, as they stood together in the stern, looking out +across the gold-flecked sea, Weldon felt that he had made a long +stride, that morning, towards acquaintance with his companion. And, +even now, the voyage was nearly all before them. + +As if in answer to his thoughts, she lifted her eyes to his face. + +"Twelve more days!" she said slowly. + +"Are you sorry?" + +She shook her head. + +"Glad and sorry both. I love the sea; but home is at the end of it." + +"You live out there?" he asked. + +She smiled at the question. "Yes, if out there means Cape Town. At +least, my parents live there." + +"How long have you been in England?" he queried, while, abandoning +all pretence of interest in the fast-vanishing town, he turned his +back to the rail in order to face his companion more directly. + +"Always, except for one year, six years ago, and a summer--summer in +England, I mean--two years later." + +Rather inconsequently, Weldon attacked the side issue suggested by +her words. + +"How does it seem to have one's seasons standing on their heads?" + +She answered question with question. "Haven't you been out before?" + +"No." + +"I supposed you had taken the voyage any number of times. But about +the seasons, it doesn't count for much until you come to Christmas. +No England-born mortal can hang up his stocking in mid-summer +without a pang of regretful homesickness." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Do you substitute a refrigerator for a chimney corner?" he asked. +"But are you England-born?" + +"Yes. My father went out only seven years ago. The 'home' tradition +is so strong that I was sent back to school and for a year of social +life. My little brother goes to Harrow in two years. Even in Cape +Town, a few people still hold true to the tradition of the public +school." + +Weldon nodded assent. + +"We meet it in Canada, now and then; not too often, though. So in +reality you are almost as much a stranger to Cape Town as I am." + +"Quite. My father says it is all changed now. It used to be a lazy +little place; now it is pandemonium, soldiers and supplies going +out, time-expired men and invalids coming in. Mr. Weldon--" + +His questioning smile answered the pause in her sentence. + +"Well?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. + +Her teeth shut on her lower lip, she stared at the wide blue sea +with wide blue eyes. Something in its restless tossing, in the +changing lights that darted back to her from the crests of the +waves, seemed to be holding her in an hypnotic trance. Out of the +midst of the trance she spoke again, and it was plain to Weldon, as +he listened to her low, intent voice, that her thoughts were not +upon the sea nor yet upon him. + +"It ought to terrify me," she said. "I mean the war, of course. I +ought to dread the going out into the atmosphere of it. I don't. +Sometimes I think I must have fighting blood in my veins. Instead of +being frightened at what my father writes me, I feel stirred by it +all, as if I were ready for anything. I went out to Aldershot, one +day last year; but that was only so many dainty frills, so much +playing soldier. That's not what I mean at all." Turning suddenly, +she looked up directly into Weldon's dark gray eyes. "One of my +cousins wants to be a nurse. She lives at Piquetberg Road, but she +has been visiting friends who live in Natal on the edge of the +fighting, where she has seen things as they happen. In her last +letter, she told me that she was only waiting for my uncle's +permission to go out as a nurse." + +"Is that what you would do?" + +Her head lifted itself proudly. + +"No. She can take care of the wounded men, if she chooses. For my +part, I'd rather cheer on the men who are starting for the front. If +I could know that one man, one single man, fought the better for +having known me, I should feel as if I had done my share." + +She spoke with fiery vigor; then her eyes dropped again to the +dancing waves. When at length she spoke again, she was once more the +level-voiced English girl who sat next him at the table. + +"You are going out to Cape Town to stay, Mr. Weldon?" she asked, +with an accent so utterly conventional that Weldon almost doubted +his own ears. + +"To stay until the war ends," he replied, in an accent as +conventional as her own. + +"In Cape Town?" Then she felt her eyes drawn to meet his eyes, as he +answered quietly,-- + +"I shall do my best to make myself a place in the firing line." + +Again her conventionality vanished, and she gave him her hand, as if +to seal a compact. + +"I hope you will win it and hold it," she responded slowly. "I can +wish you nothing better." + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +A berugged, bedraggled bundle of apologies, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay +prone in her steamer chair, her cheeks pale, her eyes closed. Her +conscience, directed towards the interests of her charge, demanded +her presence on deck. Once on deck and apparently on guard, Miss +Arthur limply subsided into a species of coma. Her charge, +meanwhile, rosy and alert, sat in the lee of a friendly ventilating +shaft. Beside her, also in the lee of the ventilating shaft, sat Mr. +Harvard Weldon. + +The past week had been full of the petty events which make up life +on shipboard. The trail of smoke from a passing steamer, the first +shoal of flying fish, the inevitable dance, the equally inevitable +concert and, most inevitable of all, the Sabbatic contest between +the captain and the fresh-water clergyman who insists upon reading +service: all these are old details, yet ever new. Throughout them +all, Weldon had sturdily maintained his place at Ethel's side. By +tacit consent, the girl had been transferred to the motherly care of +Mrs. Scott who, after a keen inspection of Weldon, had decided that +it was safe to take upon trust this clean-eyed, long-legged Canadian +who was so obviously well-born and well-bred. + +Now and then Carew joined the group; but the handsome, dashing young +fellow had no mind to play the part of second violin. He would be +concertmaster or nothing. Accordingly, he withdrew to the rival +corner where a swarthy little French girl maintained her court +without help from any apparent chaperonage whatsoever. Left in +possession of the field, Weldon made the most of his chances. The +acknowledged attendant of Ethel, his jovial ministrations overflowed +to Mrs. Scott, until the sedate colonel's wife admitted to herself +that no such pleasant voyage had fallen to her lot since the days +when she had started for India on her wedding journey. Weldon had +the consummate tact to keep the taint of the filial from his +chivalry. His attentions to Mrs. Scott and Ethel differed in degree, +but not in kind, and Mrs. Scott adored him accordingly. One by one, +the languid days dropped into the past. Neptune had duly escorted +them over the Line, to the boredom of the first-class passengers and +the strident mirth of the rest of the ship's colony. Winter was +already behind them, and the late December days took on more and +more of the guise of summer, as the log marked their passing to the +southward. To many on board, the idle passage was a winter holiday; +but to Weldon and Carew and a dozen more stalwart fellows, those +quiet days were the hush before the breaking of the storm. Home, +school, the university were behind them; before them lay the crash +of war. And afterwards? Glory, or death. Their healthy, boyish +optimism could see no third alternative. + +For ten long days, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay prone in her berth. Her +hymnal and her Imitation lay beside her; but she read less than she +pondered, and she invariably pondered with her eyes closed and her +mouth ajar. On the eleventh day, however, she gathered herself +together and went on deck. With anxious care Weldon tucked the rugs +about her elderly frame. Then he exchanged a glance with Ethel and +together they sought the shelter of the ventilating shaft. + +Nothing shows the temperature more surely than the tint of the gray +sea. It was a warm gray, that morning, and the bowl-like sky above +was gray from the horizon far towards the blue zenith. From the +other end of the ship, they could hear the plaudits that accompanied +an impromptu athletic tournament; but the inhabitants of the nearest +chairs were reading or dozing, and the deck about them was very +still. Only the throbbing of the mighty screw and the hiss of the +cleft waves broke the hush. + +Out of the hush, Ethel spoke abruptly. + +"Do you know, Mr. Weldon, you have never told me what brings you out +here." + +He had been sitting, chin on his fists, staring out across the gray, +foam-flecked water. Now he looked up at her in surprise. + +"I thought you knew. The war, of course." + +"Yes; but where are you going?" + +"To somewhere on the firing line. Beyond that I've not the least +idea." + +"Where is your regiment now?" + +"I haven't any." + +She frowned in perplexity. + +"I think I don't quite understand." + +"I mean I haven't enlisted yet." + +"But your commission?" she urged. + +"I have no commission, Miss Dent." + +"Not--any commission!" she said blankly. + +In site of himself, he laughed at her tone. + +"Certainly not. I am going as a soldier." + +She sat staring at him in thoughtful silence. + +"But you are a gentleman," she said slowly at length. + +Weldon's mouth twitched at the corners. + +"I hope so," he assented. + +"Then how can you go as soldier, for I suppose you mean private?" + +Dictated by generations-old tradition, the question was eloquent. +Weldon's one purpose, however, was to combat that tradition; and he +answered calmly,-- + +"Why not?" + +"Because--because it isn't neat," she responded unexpectedly. + +This time, Weldon laughed outright. Trained in the wider, more +open-air school of Canadian life, he found her insular point of view +distinctly comic. + +"I have a portable tub somewhere among my luggage," he reassured +her. + +She shook her head. + +"No; that's not what I mean. But you won't be thrown with men of +your own class. The private is a distinct race; you'll find him +unbearable, when you are really in close quarters with him." + +Deliberately Weldon rose and stood looking down at her. His lips +were smiling; his eyes were direct and grave. His mother could have +told the girl, just then, that some one had touched him on the raw. + +"Miss Dent," he asked slowly; "is this the way you cheer on the +men?" + +She flushed under his rebuke and, for a moment, her blue eyes showed +an angry light. + +"I beg your pardon. I was referring to the men whom I am likely to +know." + +"And omitting myself?" he inquired. + +"You are the exception which proves the rule," she answered a little +shortly. "Of course, I wish you all good; but I don't see how it is +to be gained, if you bury yourself in the ranks." + +"It may depend a little upon what you mean by good," he returned, +with a dignity which, notwithstanding her momentary petulance, won +her full respect. "I am not going out in search of the path to a +generalship. Fighting isn't my real profession." + +"Then what are you going for?" she demanded sharply. With no +consciousness of dramatic effect, his eyes turned to the Union Jack +fluttering above them. + +"Because I couldn't stay away," he answered simply. "From +Magersfontein to Nooitdedacht, the pull on me has been growing +stronger. I am not needed at home; I can shoot a little and ride a +good deal. I am taking out my own horse; I shall draw no pay. I can +do no harm; and, somewhere or other, I may do a little good. For the +rest, I prefer the ranks. It's not always the broadest man who lives +entirely with his own class. For a while, I am willing to meet some +one outside. As soon as I get to Cape Town, I shall enlist in a +regiment of horse, put on the khaki and learn to wind myself up in +my putties. Then it will remain to be seen whether my old friends +will accept Trooper Weldon on their list of acquaintances." + +"One of them will," the girl said quickly. "If only for the sake of +novelty, I shall be glad to know a man in the ranks." + +He shook his head. + +"No novelty, Miss Dent. I know any number of fellows who are doing +the same thing. We can't all be officers; a few of us must take +orders. Out in the hunting field, we say it is the thoroughbred dog +who answers to call most quickly." + +She ignored his last words. + +"And you don't even know where you are going?" she asked. "To Cape +Town." + +"But after that?" + +"To my banker. After that, to the nearest recruiting station." + +"So you'll not stop in Cape Town?" + +Weldon's quick ear caught the little note of regret in her voice. + +"Not long. Long enough, however, to pull any latch-string that +offers itself to me." + +Her eyes dropped to the shining sea. + +"My mother will offer ours to you," she said quietly. Then she +added, with a swift flash of merriment, "And you will wish to see +Miss Arthur again." + +Weldon cast a mocking glance over his shoulder at the recumbent, +open-mouthed form. + +"Is the lady going to stop long with you?" he queried. + +"Long enough to recover from her invalidism." + +"To judge from her greeny-yellow cast of countenance, that may take +some time. But tell me, Miss Dent, does she always sleep out loud +like this?" + +"Not always. It usually comes when she is taking what she calls +forty winks." + +"Then may a merciful heaven prevent her from taking eighty," Weldon +observed piously. "Still, the sleeping cat--" + +"Fox," she corrected him promptly. + +"Fox be it, then. Miss Arthur seems to me to be feline, rather than +vulpine, though." Bending forward, the girl studied her chaperon +thoughtfully. + +"She really isn't so bad, Mr. Weldon. She means well. It is only +that I don't like tight frizzles and a hymn-book in combination. +People should always have one point of absolute worldliness." + +"Aren't fizzles--that is what you called the thatch over her +eyebrows; isn't it?--aren't they worldly?" + +Ethel Dent laughed with the consciousness of a woman's superior +knowledge. + +"It depends upon the season," she replied enigmatically, as she +rose. + +It was five days later that Ethel closed and locked her steamer +trunk. Leaving Miss Arthur to grapple alone with the cabin bags, the +girl went out on deck. Regardless of the glaring sunshine of New +Year morning, groups of people were dotted along the rail, staring +up at the flat top and seamy face of cloud-capped Table Mountain. In +the very midst of a knot of eager, excited men, Weldon was leaning +on the rail, talking so earnestly to Carew that he was quite +unconscious of the girl, twenty paces behind him. She hesitated for +a moment. Then, as she walked away to the farther end of the deck, +she told herself that Weldon was like all other men, regardful of +women only when no more vital interest presented itself. Already she +regretted the girlish vanity which had dictated the choice of the +gown in which she was to go ashore. For all the young Canadian was +likely to know to the contrary, she might be clad in a calico +wrapper and a blanket shawl, rather than the masterpiece of a London +tailor. + +The Dunottar Castle was forging steadily ahead through the blue +waters of Table Bay. Beyond the bay, Cape Town nestled in its bed of +living green, backed by the sinister face of Table Mountain, and +fringed with a thicket of funnels and of raking masts. To the girl, +familiar with the harbor when Cape Town had been a peaceful seaport, +it seemed that the navies of the world were gathered there before +her eyes. It seemed to her, too, that the low, squat town never +looked half so fair as it did now, viewed from a softening distance +and ringed about with its summer setting of verdure. + +Already the docks were in sight and, far to her left at the other +end of the long curve of the water front, her keen eyes could make +out the roof which, six years before, she had learned to call home. +She could imagine the stir and excitement in that home: the +controlled eagerness of her busy father, the gentle flurry of her +invalid mother, and the tempestuous bulletins issued by the small +brother whose occasional letters, full of incoherent affection and +quaint bits of orthography, had added interest to the last years of +her English life. One and all, they were loyally intent upon her +coming. And she, ingrate that she was, could spare thought from the +dear home circle to waste it upon the forgetful young Canadian who +was talking horse and politics by the rail. + +She turned sharply, as Weldon's voice fell upon her ears. + +"Happy New Year, Miss Dent! It is an odd wish to be giving, with the +mercury at ninety." + +With her London gown, she had also donned her London manner, and her +answer was banal. + +"But none the less welcome, for all its being so warm. May I return +it?" + +He laughed, like the great, overgrown boy that he so often showed +himself. + +"I decline to take it back. And where have you been, all the +morning?" + +"Packing my steamer trunk. I have been on deck for nearly an hour, +though." + +"I'm sorry I missed so much of the time. I don't see why I didn't +see you," he said regretfully. "I was over there by the rail with +Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show up. It +was mighty interesting, too, this getting one's first glimpse of a +new corner of the earth." + +Most men would have seemed penitent over their absorption in other +things. Weldon merely acknowledged it as a matter of course, and +allowed the girl to draw her own conclusions. She drew them +accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted +their justice. Meanwhile, she kept her momentary antagonism quite to +herself, as she looked up into the face of her companion, an +earnest, manly face, in spite of its boyish outlines. + +"It is hard for me to realize that you are a stranger here," she +answered him. "All the way out, you have given the impression of +having made the voyage any number of times." + +"In what way?" + +"In the way of getting what you wish in an utterly matter-of-course +fashion." Her laugh belied her London exterior and belonged to the +broad felt hat and the soft blouse of the past two weeks. + +"That is the one compliment I most value, Miss Dent." + +"See that you continue to live up to it, Mr. Weldon." + +For an instant, they faced each other, a merry boy and girl. Then +Weldon's lips straightened resolutely, and he bowed. + +"I will do my best," he answered slowly. + +Half an hour later, he joined her at the gangway and took forcible +possession of her hand luggage. + +"Surely," he said, in answer to her objections; "you will let me do +you this one last little service." + +"Not if you call it that," she said quietly. "Our acquaintance is +only just beginning. If you are to be in Cape Town for a day or two, +come and let my mother thank you for your kindness to me, all the +way out." + +He took her hand, outstretched in farewell. + +"Even if I come as Trooper Weldon?" he asked with a smile. + +And she answered, with a prophecy of whose truth she was as yet in +ignorance,-- + +"Trooper Weldon will always be a welcome guest in our home." + +Then her father came to claim her. When she emerged from his +welcoming embrace, she saw Weldon, cap in hand, bowing to her from +what appeared a most unseemly distance. The next moment, he had +vanished in the crowd. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +According to one's individual point of view, Cape Town, on that New +Year morning of nineteen hundred and one, was either a point of +departure for the front, or a city of refuge for the sleek and +portly Uitlanders who thronged the hotels and made too audible +mourning for their imperiled possessions. Viewed in either light, it +was hot, crowded and unclean. From his caricature of a hansom, +Weldon registered his swift impression that he wished to get off to +the front as speedily as possible. The hansom contributed to this +impression no less than did the city. Out of a multitude of similar +vehicles, he had chosen this for its name, painted across its +curving front. The Lady of the Snows had obviously been christened +as a welcome to the scores of his fellow colonials who had gone that +way before; and he and Carew had dashed past Killarney and The +Scotch Thistle, to take possession of its padded interior. + +It was almost noon, as they drove through the Dock Gates, past the +Amsterdam Battery, and turned eastward towards Adderley Street and +the Grand Hotel. It was nightfall before their luggage was safe +through the custom house and in their room. Carew eyed his boxes +askance. Weldon attacked the straps of his nearest trunk. + +"Wherefore?" Carew queried languidly from the midst of a haze of +smoke. + +"To take account of stock." + +"What's the use?" + +"To find out what we need, of course." + +"But we don't need anything. We've tobacco for our pipes and quinine +for our stomachs and fuller's earth for our feet. What more can a +man need?" As he spoke, Carew hooked his toe around a second chair, +drew it towards him and promptly converted it into a foot-rest. +"Besides," he added tranquilly; "to-morrow is Boxing Day, and the +bank won't be open until the day after. You know you can't buy +anything more than a pink-bordered handkerchief out of your present +supplies." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Don't be too sure I can make out even that," he said, as he dived +into the trunk and pulled out a Klondyke sleeping-bag. + +Carew watched him from between half-closed lids. + +"Going beddy?" he inquired. + +"Confound it, no! I thought my calling kit was in there." A pair of +dark gray blankets landed in the corner on top of the sleeping-bag. + +"That looks jolly comfortable. You'd better bunk in there, and leave +the bed to me," Carew advised him. "You're in the wrong trunk for +your calling clothes, anyway. What under heaven do you want of them, +Weldon?" + +"I don't want them to lie all in a heap." + +"They'll lie in heaps for a good long time, before you are out of +this country," Carew predicted cheerfully. "Moreover, from the look +of the place, you could make calls in either pajamas or khaki, and +it would pass muster. I saw one fellow, this noon, in evening +clothes and a collar button. Besides, there isn't anybody for us to +call on." + +Weldon smiled contentedly, as he drew out a frock-coat and inspected +its satin-faced lapels. + +"Not for you, perhaps," he observed quietly. + +"Oh, I see." Carew puffed vigorously. "So you have a bidding to call +upon Miss Dent." + +Weldon dislodged Carew's feet from the extra chair and utilized the +chairback as a temporary coat-rack. + +"No; quite the contrary," he replied. "I am invited to call upon +Miss Ophelia Arthur. Now you will please to keep quiet, for I think +I shall go to bed." + +In silence, Carew watched him half through the process of +undressing. Then, emptying his pipe and snapping open its case, he +rose and faced his friend. + +"Weldon," he said sententiously; "we don't care to hang around this +place longer than we must; and we shall have all we can do to get +ourselves enlisted and our horses into condition. We haven't time +for much else. I hope you will remember that you came out here, not +to fuss the girls, but for the fuss with the Boers." + +From his seat on the edge of the bed, Weldon eyed him amicably. + +"Don't preach, Carew," he answered coolly. "It doesn't do my soul +any good, and it only renders you a bore. It has always been a +clause of my creed that two good things are better than one." + +Nevertheless, in spite of his haste to unpack his calling clothes, +it was full three days later that Weldon turned his face eastward in +search of the home of Ethel Dent. Moreover, in all those three days, +he had given scarcely a thought to the companion of his voyage. +Notwithstanding his first impressions, Weldon had found much to +interest him in Cape Town. The streets, albeit unlovely, were full +of novel sights and the patter of novel tongues. Cape carts and +Kaffirs, traction engines and troopers, khaki everywhere and yet +more khaki, and, rising grimly behind it all, the naked face of +Table Mountain covered with its cloth of clouds! It was all a tumult +of busy change, bounded by the unchanging and the eternal. For one +entire morning, Weldon loitered about the streets, viewing all +things with his straightforward Canadian gaze, jostling and jostled +by turns. War had ceased to be a myth, and, of a sudden, was become +a grim reality; yet in the face of it all his courage never +faltered. His sole misgivings concerned themselves with the contrast +between the seasoned regulars marching to their station, and his +boyish self, full of eager enthusiasm, but trained only in the +hunting field, the polo ground and the gymnasium. Then, gripping his +hope in both hands, he resolutely shouldered his way into the +nearest recruiting office. He went into the office as Harvard +Weldon, amateur athlete and society darling of his own home city. He +came out as Trooper Weldon of the First Regiment of Scottish Horse. + +He spent the next morning in sorting over his miscellaneous luggage. +In the light of Cape Town and the practical advice which had been +his for the asking, his outfit appeared comically complete. Two +thirds of it must be stored in Cape Town; of the other third, one +full half must be left with the negro servants at the hotel. His +toilet fixtures would have been adequate for a Paris season; his +superfluous rugs would have warmed him during a winter on the apex +of the North Pole. It was with something between a smile and a sigh +that he stowed away the greater part of his waistcoats and neckties, +in company with the silver-mounted medicine chest by which his +mother had set such store. It was as Carew had said: quinine and +tobacco were the main essentials. + +Then, for the last time in many months, he arrayed himself in black +cloth and fine linen, chose his stick and gloves with care, and, +leaving Adderley Street behind him, turned eastward towards the home +of the Dents. + +He found Ethel on the broad veranda, bordered with flower-boxes and +overlooking the garden and the blue waters of Table Bay. Dressed in +a thin white gown which, to Weldon's mind, was curiously out of +keeping with all his preconceived notions of January weather, she +rose and came forward to greet him at the top of the steps. + +"At last," she said cordially, while she gave him her hand. "I began +to fear you had already gone to the front." + +"Not without seeing you again," he answered, as he followed her back +to the bamboo chairs at the shaded western end of the veranda. "In +fact, I began to be rather afraid I should never see the front at +all." + +"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. "Has something happened since +I saw you?" + +"A great deal has happened. The thing I referred to was my first +sight of British regulars." + +Her face cleared. + +"Oh, is that all?" + +"It is a good deal," he assured her, as he sat down. "I came out +here with all sorts of high notions regarding volunteers." + +"Well?" she questioned smilingly. + +"Well, they have been taken out of me. An untrained man isn't worth +much in any line, least of all in the firing line. Still, it would +be very ignominious to go back home again." + +Her eyes swept over his alert, well-groomed figure. + +"And when do you start for the front, Trooper Weldon?" + +"How do you know I start at all?" + +"How do I know you are sitting opposite me?" she asked lightly. +"Having eyes, I use them." + +"And they tell you--?" he responded. + +"That you are looking content with life." + +The laughter died out of his eyes. + +"I am," he said gravely; "perfectly content. I am enrolled in the +Scottish Horse, and I go tomorrow." + +"The Scottish Horse?" she asked quickly. "Which squadron?" + +"Do you know anything of it?" + +"A little," she answered; "but that little is good. Then it is to +Maitland that you are going?" + +"Are you omniscient, Miss Dent?" + +"No; merely an inquisitive girl who remembers the answers to the +questions that she asks. My father, you know, is in the thick of +things, and it seems to me I have met half the British army, in the +four days I have been at home." + +"Officers, or Tommies?" he reminded her. + +She laughed at the recollection of her former prejudice. + +"You told the truth, Mr. Weldon. One of the men I danced with, last +season, is riding across Natal in the same squadron with his groom. +In my one London season, I met only officers. Out here, I find Lord +Thomas turned into Tommy Atkins, and I meet him every day. But, +aside from the war, what do you think of Cape Town?" + +"What would I think of Table Mountain without its tablecloth?" he +parried. "In both cases, the two things seem inseparable." + +"Wait till you know the place better, then," she advised him. "It +really does have a life of its own, apart from its military +setting." + +"I am afraid there's not much chance of my knowing it better," he +answered a little regretfully. + +"Maitland is only three miles away, and you've not met my mother +yet," she suggested. + +"Is she at home now?" Weldon asked, with the conscious air of a man +suddenly recalled to his social duty. + +"Not this afternoon. She has taken Miss Arthur for a drive through +Rondebosch. That is quite one of the things to do, you know." + +"I didn't know. Is the redoubtable Miss Arthur well?" + +The dimple beside the girl's firm lips displayed itself suddenly, +and her eyes lighted. + +"Wonderfully. Her convalescence has been remarkably short. More +remarkable still is the fact that she has neglected to mention her +illness to any one." + +"How soon does she go back?" + +The blue eyes met his eyes in frank merriment. + +"Not until she has finished informing my mother of the present +London code of chaperonage." + +Weldon raised his brows. + +"Then I shall find her here, when I come back at the end of the +war." + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. + +"Are you so much less strict in Canada?" + +"We are--different," he confessed. "Miss Arthur's lorgnette would be +impossible with us. I don't mean the lorgnette itself; but the acute +accent which she contrives to give to it. Mrs. Scott is more of a +colonial matron." + +"Dear little lady! Have you seen her since she landed?" + +"Once. They are at the Mount Nelson, and Carew and I called on them +there. They are leaving for De Aar, Monday." + +"And what about Mr. Carew?" + +"He goes with me to Maitland. He is Trooper Carew now." + +The girl sat staring thoughtfully out across the lawn. + +"I wonder what sort of a soldier he will make," she said, half to +herself. Weldon faced her sharply. + +"Why?" + +"Because life is an embodied joke to him." + +Weldon rose a little stiffly. His call had lasted its allotted time; +nevertheless, under other conditions, it might have lasted even +longer. He liked Ethel Dent absolutely; yet now and then she had a +curious fashion of antagonizing him. The alternations of her cordial +moments with her formal ones were no more marked than were the +alternations of her viewpoint. As a rule, she looked on life with +the impartial eyes of a healthy-minded boy; occasionally, however, +she showed herself hidebound by the fetters of tradition, and, worst +of all, she wore the fetters as if they lay loosely upon her. At +such moments, he longed acutely to impress her with his own point of +view, as the only just one possible. + +"I think perhaps you don't fully understand Carew, Miss Dent," he +said courteously, yet with a slight accent of finality. "He laughs +at life like a child; but he lives it like a man. I have known him +since we were boys together; I have never known him to shirk or to +funk a difficult point. If the Scottish Horse ever sees the firing +line, it will hold no better trooper than Harry Carew." + +He bowed in farewell and turned away. Looking after him, Ethel Dent +told herself that Weldon's simple words had been descriptive, not +only of his friend, but of his loyal, honest self. + +Half-way across the heart-shaped bit of lawn enclosed within the +curve of the drive, Weldon met another guest going towards the +steps. There was no need of the trim uniform of khaki serge to +assure him that the man was also a soldier. The starred shoulder +straps were needless to show him that here was one born to command. +Glancing up, Weldon looked into a pair of keen blue eyes exactly on +a level with his own, took swift note of the full, broad forehead, +of the black lashes contrasting with the yellow hair and of the +resolute lines of the shaven chin. Then, mindful of his frock-coat +and shining silk hat, he repressed his inclination to salute, and +walked steadily on, quite unconscious of the part in his life which +the stranger was destined to play, during the coming months. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +Sitting in the lee of the picket fence which bounded Maitland Camp +on the west, Paddy the cook communed with himself, and Weldon and +Carew communed with him. + +"Oh, it's long and long yet before a good many of these ones will be +soldiers," he, observed, with a disrespectful wave of his thumb +towards the awkward squad still manoeuvering its way about over the +barren stretch of the parade ground. "They ride like tailors +squatting on their press-boards, and they salute like a parrot +scratching his head with his hind paw. A soldier is like a poet, +born, not made." + +In leisurely fashion, Weldon stretched himself at full length and +drew out a slender pipe. + +"Paddy, if you keep on, I'll fire a kopje at you," he threatened. + +Paddy disdained the threat. + +"Glory be, the kopjes be riveted down on the bottom end of them! But +it's the truth I'm telling. Half of these men is afraid of their +lives, when they're on a horse." + +"The horses of South Africa are divided into two classes," Carew +observed sententiously; "the American ones that merely buck, and the +cross-eyed Argentine ones that grin at you like a Cheshire cat, +after they have done it. Both are bad for the nerves. Still, I'd +rather be respectfully bucked, than bucked and then laughed at, +after the catastrophe occurs. Paddy, my knife has been splitting +open its handle. What's to be done about it?" + +"Let's see." + +Bending forward, Carew drew the black-handled knife and fork from +the coils of his putties. In the orderly surroundings of Maitland +Camp, there was no especial need of his adopting the storage methods +of the trek; nevertheless, he had taken to the new idea with prompt +enthusiasm. Up to that time, it had never occurred to him to bandage +his legs with khaki, and then convert the bandages into a species of +portable sideboard. + +"Paddy," Weldon remonstrated; "don't stop to play with his knife. No +matter if it is cracked. So is he, for the matter of that. Go and +tell your menial troop to remember to put a little beef in the soup, +this noon. I am tired of sipping warm water and onion juice." + +"What time is it, then?" + +"My watch says eleven; but my stomach declares it is half-past two. +Trot along, there's a good Paddy. And don't forget to tie a pink +string to my piece of meat, when you give it to the orderly. Else I +may not know it's the best one." With a reluctant yawn and a glance +upward towards the sun, Paddy scrambled to his feet and brushed +himself off with the outspread palms of his stubby hands. Then he +turned to the men behind him. + +"Stick your fork back in your putties, Mr. Carew, and I'll send you +a knife to go with it. As long as Paddy manages the cooking tent, +the cracked knives shall go to the dunderheads. The best isn't any +too good for them as rides like you and Mr. Weldon, and drinks no +rum at all." + +Weldon eyed him mockingly. + +"And gives their ration of rum to Paddy," he added. "Go along, man, +and set your kettles to boiling, while you return thanks that you +know a good thing when you see it." + +"Paddy is a great boy," Carew observed, as the little Irishman +saluted them in farewell, then turned and strolled away in the +direction of his quarters. + +"And, what's more, a most outrageously good cook," Weldon assented. +"If Paddy's ambition to shoot a gun should ever be fulfilled, +England might gain a soldier; but it would lose a chef of the cordon +bleu." + +"If I were to choose, I'd sacrifice his sense of taste for the sake +of keeping his sense of humor," Carew returned. "Not even war can +subdue Paddy." + +With a disdainful gesture, Weldon pointed out across the sun-baked +parade ground with the stem of his pipe. + +"War! This?" he protested. "It is nothing in this world but a Sunday +school picnic." + +And Carew, as his eyes followed the pointing pipe-stem, was forced +to give his assent. + +It was now five days since, with scores of their mates, Weldon and +Carew had been passed from their medical examination to the double +test of their riding and their shooting. Elated by their threefold +recommendation, they had lost no time in donning their khaki and +taking up their quarters under the fraction of canvas allotted to +them. The days that followed were busy and slid past with a certain +monotony, notwithstanding their varied routine. From morning stables +at seven until evening stables at six, each hour held its duty, for +in that regular, clock-marked life, recreation was counted a duty +just as surely as were the daily drills. + +Carew, trained on the football field, took to the foot drill as a +duck takes to water. Weldon was in his glory on mounted parade. One +summer spent on an Alberta ranch had taught him the tricks of the +broncho-buster, and five o'clock invariably found him pirouetting +across the parade ground on the back of the most vicious mount to be +found within the limits of Maitland. More than once there had been a +breathless pause while the entire squadron had waited to watch the +killing of Trooper Weldon; more than once there had been an utterly +profane pause while the officers had waited for Trooper Weldon to +bring his bolting steed back into some semblance of alignment. The +pause always ended with Weldon upright in his saddle, his face +beaming with jovial smiles and his horse ranged up with mathematical +precision. The delays were by no means helpful to discipline. +Nevertheless, the officers yielded to the inevitable with the better +grace, inasmuch as no one else would voluntarily trust life and limb +to the vicious beasts in which Weldon's soul delighted. + +Twice already, during the past five days, Weldon had handed over to +the authorities a chastened and obedient pony, and had made petition +to select a fresh and untrammelled spirit. The one of the afternoon +before had been the most untrammelled he had as yet attempted. The +contest had begun with the first touch of the saddle. It had +continued with Weldon's being borne across the camp on the back of a +little gray broncho who was making tentative motions towards a +complete handspring. By the time the pony was convinced of the +proper function of her own hind legs, Weldon found himself being +driven from the door of the cooking tent by Paddy and a volley of +potatoes. The broncho surveyed Paddy with scorn, rose to her hind +legs and strolled towards the corner of the camp sacred to visitors. +There she delivered herself of one final, mighty buck. When Weldon +regained the perpendicular, he found himself directly facing the +merry, admiring eyes of Ethel Dent. By Ethel's side, mounted on a +huge khaki-colored horse, sat the man he had met, only the week +before, in the driveway of the Dents' home. + +Scarlet with his exertions, grimly aware that his sleeve was pulled +from its armhole and his left puttie was strained out of its usual +compact folds, nevertheless Weldon saluted her smilingly and, his +mount well in hand, galloped off in search of his squadron. That +night, however, his clear baritone voice was missing from the usual +chorus about the camp fire; and, as he thoughtfully drained his tin +billy of coffee, next morning, he was revolving in mind the relative +merits of his banker and a dead mother-in-law, as excuses for +demanding a pass to town, that afternoon. + +However, afternoon found him moodily riding about the camp. His body +was on a subdued gray broncho; his mind was solely upon Ethel and +her companion. He liked the girl for herself, as well as for the +fact that, in this remote corner of the world, she represented the +sole bit of feminine companionship which is the rightful heritage of +every son of Eve. True, there was Miss Arthur; but Miss Arthur was +antediluvian. Under these conditions, it was galling to Weldon to +see Ethel absorbed by a comrade who, he frankly admitted to himself, +was far the more personable man of the two. And the girl's blue eyes +had laughed up into the eyes of the stranger just exactly as, two +short weeks before, they had laughed up into his own. Then the +little gray broncho jumped cornerwise, and Weldon had difficulty in +impressing upon her that handsprings were not an approved form of +cavalry tactics. Nevertheless, he did it with a word of apology. For +the moment, the broncho was not wholly responsible for her return to +evil ways. + +Over their breakfast, next morning, his five tentmates fell to +catechising him as to his pensive mood, and their catechism was +largely intermingled with chaff. + +"Paddy's compliments, and roll up for your tucker," the mess orderly +proclaimed, as he came into the tent, brandishing a coffee pot in +one hand, the frying pan in the other. + +Fork in hand, Carew nevertheless paused to take exception to the +word. + +"I confess I can't see why Tucker, when it is supposed to untuck the +creases of us," he observed. "Hermit, shall I serve you in the +corner; or will you deign to join us about the festive frying pan?" + +"What's the matter with Weldon, anyhow?" another of the group +queried, as dispassionately as if the subject of discussion had been +absent in Rhodesia. "His face is a yard long, and his lips hang down +in the slack of the corners." + +"Brace up, man, and get over your grouch," a third adjured him. "You +are worse than O'Brien was, the morning after he was shoved in kink. +Were you in Cape Town, last night?" + +"Not a bit of it," Carew put in hastily, while he buried his knife-blade +in the nearest pot of jam. "My left ear can prove an alibi for +him. From taps till midnight, Weldon discoursed of all the grewsome +things in the human calendar." + +The smallest of the group turned himself about and peered up into +Weldon's face. + +"Homesick, man?" he queried. + +"Sure," Weldon replied imperturbably. + +"Oh. Then get over it. Just dream of the days when the bronchos +cease from bucking and the Stringies shoot no more. Meanwhile, if +you could look pleasant, as the photographers say, it would help on +things wonderfully." + +But the mess orderly interrupted. He had tidings to impart, and they +burned upon his tongue. + +"Have you heard about Eaton-Hill?" he asked, in the first pause that +offered itself. + +Five faces turned to him with gratifying expectancy. Eaton-Hill had +come out on the Dunottar Castle. He was known to them all as the +acknowledged exquisite of the entire camp. + +"What about him?" + +"C. B. I met him coming out of the orderly room." + +"Hm! Camp scavenger. Eaton-Hill will like that," Weldon commented +dryly. "What's the row about?" + +"Cupid apparently. He went calling in Cape Town, last night, without +leave, stayed till past eleven and undertook to come in by sea. He +shipped in a leaky boat with a crew composed of one Kaffir boy; the +Kaffir funked the surf; they had an upset and Eaton-Hill waked up +the picket by the fervor of his swearing at the half-drowned +Kaffir." + +"Poor Eaton-Hill! Both his morals and his clothes must have +suffered," Carew suggested. "Weldon, take warning. Next time you go +to call on Miss Arthur, start early and be sure you have your pass +pinned to the lining of your coat." + +"Who is Miss Arthur?" demanded the chorus. + +Deliberately Carew helped himself to the last of the bacon. Then he +made answer, with equal deliberation,-- + +"Miss Arthur is Weldon's lawful chaperon." + +At four o'clock, that afternoon, Weldon arose reluctantly from his +seat on the western end of the Dents' veranda. + +"Parade at five, Miss Dent, and Maitland Camp is four miles away." + +Without rising, she smiled up into his waiting eyes. + +"You made more than four miles an hour, when Captain Frazer and I +were watching you, the other day, Mr. Weldon." + +"Yes, twenty at least. Still, as you may have noticed, my mount +doesn't always choose the straightest course. If she elects to go to +Maitland by way of Durban, it will take me all of the hour to make +the journey." + +She laughed at his words. Then of a sudden her face grew grave. + +"They've no right to give you such a horse, Mr. Weldon." + +"Right? Oh, I beg pardon. I chose it." + +"Is your life so unhappy?" she questioned, in mocking rebuke. + +"It is no suicidal mania, Miss Dent," he reassured her. "I like the +rush and excitement of it all; but I had a summer on a ranch, and I +learned the trick of sitting tight until the beast tires itself out. +Broncho-busting is only a concrete form of philosophy, after all." + +"And must you really go?" she asked him. + +He lingered and hesitated. Then, with a glance at the horse fastened +to a post in the drive below, he straightened his shoulders. + +"I must." + +She rose to her feet. + +"Good afternoon, then." + +"And good by," he added. + +"What does that mean?" + +"That we leave Maitland Camp in the morning." + +"I am sorry," she said, and her voice showed her regret. "Where are +you going?" + +"To Maitland station. Then into a train. Beyond that, I do not +know." + +"I am sorry," she repeated; "but very glad. It is time you were +doing something. I know you didn't take all this journey out here +for the sake of being drilled in Maitland Camp until the end of +time. We shall miss you; but you will come back to us, some day, and +tell us all the story of your deeds. Success to you, Trooper +Weldon!" + +She gave him her hand; then stood looking after him, as he went down +the steps. Once in the saddle, he turned back to wave a farewell to +the tall girl framed in the arching greenery that sheltered the +broad veranda. Then, urging on his horse, he went galloping away, +his boyish face turned resolutely towards the front. + +Careless of the oldtime superstition, the girl watched him out of +sight. Then slowly she moved back to their deserted corner where she +sat long, her elbows on the arms of her chair and her chin resting +on her hands. Her eyes were held steadily on Table Bay; but her +thoughts followed along the road to Maitland Camp--and beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +That January had brought the second irruption of Boers into Cape +Colony. In reality, they were near Calvinia; but, by the middle of +the month, rumor had so far out-stripped fact that certain refugee +Uitlanders were ready to affirm that Table Mountain was held by an +invading army who patrolled the summit, coffee pot in one hand and +Bible in the other. Under these conditions, the little Dutch church +at Piquetberg Road had become, in all truth, the abiding-place of +the Church Militant. + +In deference to tradition, the altar had been promptly pulled down +and its ornaments stowed away to be safe from possible desecration. +The altar rail was left, however, and Weldon sat leaning against it, +his eyes vaguely turned upwards to the organ in the farther end of +the church. From the open floor between, the buzz of many voices and +the smoke of many pipes rose to the roof; from the vestry room +behind him, he heard the cleaner-cut accent of the officers. +Outside, above the light spatter of rain on the windows, he could +hear the horses stamping contentedly in the leafy avenue without the +churchyard wall, and the brawl of the stream beyond. The twilight +lay heavy over the church, heaviest of all over the distant organ +gallery, where Weldon could barely make out a single figure moving +towards the bench. There was a rattle of stops, a tentative chord or +two and then a few notes of this or that melody, as if the player, +albeit a musician, found himself continually thwarted by the +darkness and the absence of any printed notes. + +"Who is up there, Weldon?" Carew asked, as he peered up into the +dimness. + +"Shut up; can't you?" Weldon ordered him abruptly. + +And Carew subsided, just as the unseen organist, apparently +abandoning his more ambitious efforts, with sure touch swept into +the familiar harmonies of the Eventide Hymn, and then, still with +his hymnal in mind, jerked out the dozen stops and set the air +rocking to the steady beat of Onward, Christian Soldiers. + +As he listened, Weldon's mind went backward to his last Sunday +evening in the cathedral at home. He had known why the old rector +had chosen that time-worn hymn for a recessional; he could still +feel the stir of the congregation as he passed them, still see the +scarlet blot of color made by his own hymnal against his stiffly +starched cotta, still see his mother, erect and pale, staring at him +with a resolute bravery which matched his own. Since then, he had +been inside no church until to-day. It was a far cry from +worshipping in the Gothic cathedral to camping in the simple little +Dutch church; but in each the air was vibrating to the same martial +hymn. + +Little by little, the groups scattered over the floor fell into +silence. Here and there, one took up the refrain, now humming it +softly, now singing it with full voice. Then the refrain died away; +there was an instant's hush, an instant's modulation; and, as a man, +the crowd beneath rose to their feet and stood, pipe in hand, while +slowly, steadily from the organ came rolling down the familiar notes +of God Save the Queen. + +The organ was closed with a muffled clatter, the organist rose and +slowly came down to the floor. With a friendly word here and there, +he passed among the troopers who saluted him and then settled +themselves again for comfort and their pipes. Last of all, he paused +beside Weldon. + +"It is good to put my fingers on the keys again," he said, as he sat +down for a moment on the low rail. "We had an organ at home, and I +miss it. I builded better than I knew, when I chose this place for +our barracks. One rarely finds an organ out here." + +Just then an orderly lighted the chancel where they stood. The +organist gave a slight exclamation of surprise. + +"Isn't this Trooper Weldon?" + +The speaker's face was in shadow. Only the starred shoulder straps +gave Weldon any clue to the rank of his companion. + +"It is," he answered briefly. + +"Miss Dent has spoken of you. In fact, we were together at Maitland +Camp, last week, when you tried issues with the little gray +broncho." + +As he spoke, he moved slightly, and the light fell full upon his +yellow hair and on his blue eyes, dark and fringed with long black +lashes. Weldon looked up at him with a smile of recognition. + +"It is Captain Frazer, then?" + +"Yes. I am congratulating you on having won your way into Miss +Dent's good graces. She tells me you were most thoughtful for her, +all the way out." + +"You have known Miss Dent for a long time?" Weldon queried. + +Captain Frazer answered the question as frankly as it was asked. For +the moment, they were man and man. In a moment more, they could +resume their formal relations of captain and soldier. + +"I knew her well in England. We met at one or two house parties, a +year ago last fall. I was at her coming-out function, too." Then he +rose. "I shall see you again," he added formally. "Now I wish to +make my round of the guards." And, turning, he went striding away +towards his own quarters in the vestry. + +Weldon looked after him thoughtfully. Then he uttered terse +judgment. + +"Carew, that's a man," he said. + +"Quite likely," Carew assented. "Women don't usually wear khaki. +Shall we go in search of Paddy?" + +They found him smoking tranquilly by the churchyard gate. The old +stone wall towering above his head made good shelter from the +drizzle; and Paddy, his day's labor done, was leaning back at his +ease, exchanging adverse compliments with the half-dozen sentries +who patrolled the wall. He hailed Weldon with cordiality. + +"Come along here, little Canuck," he called. "There's room for the +two of us and fine smoking. Mr. Carew can stay out in the rain. It's +worth his while, even then, for the sake of watching that pigeon-toed +cockney in the oilskins, him as is stubbing his toes in the +sand, this blessed minute." + +"Shut up, Paddy," his victim retorted hotly. + +"It's you that should shut up and teach the toes of you to walk +hushlike. If you go on like this, you living watchman's rattle, the +Boers can hear you, clear up in the Transvaal. Tell me, little one, +have you seen your captain yet?" + +"Captain Frazer?" + +"Yes, Captain Leo Frazer, sure as you're a trooper of C. Squadron. +You're in luck, boy. There's not a better soldier nor a finer +Christian, this side the line. Neptune must have give him an extry +scrubbing, when he come over, for he's white he is, all white. +Boys!" Paddy spoke in a portentous whisper. + +"Let her go," Weldon advised him calmly. + +"It goes without letting. Once let Paddy get free of his skillets, +once let him have a rifle in place of his spoon, and you'll see war. +The Kingdom of Heaven is a spot of everlasting peace. All I ask of +Saint Peter is a place in front of a line of Boers and Captain +Frazer beside me to give the orders." + +"Here he is, Paddy." The low-pitched voice was full of mirth. "He +orders you inside your tent to plan up an extra good breakfast. Some +of these fellows must volunteer for a night guard out in the open, +and they will need a feast, when they come in." + +Weldon rose hastily. + +"At your service, Captain," he said, just as Paddy, in nowise +daunted by the unexpected presence of his superior, responded,-- + +"Sure, Captain, I put a condition on the tail of it. If you'll +remember back a little, you'll see that I merely said, 'when I get a +rifle instead of a spoon.' It's a sorry day for an able-bodied man +to be tied to a frying pan all his days. Now and then he longs to +leap out and get into the fire." + +Meanwhile, half of the men inside the church were volunteering for +the party of twenty guards demanded by the Captain. It was a surly +night, cold and raw with a drizzling rain. Nevertheless, this was +their first approach to anything even remotely resembling active +service, and the men sought it eagerly. + +By dint of attaching himself to the Captain's elbow and assuming +that his going was an understood thing, Weldon accomplished his aim. +Eleven o'clock found him, wet to his skin, sneaking on the points of +his toes through the thick grass beyond the river, with nineteen +other men sneaking at his heels. There had been no especial pretext +of Boers in the neighborhood; tactical thoroughness merely demanded +a guard on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless, the +enthusiastic fellows threw themselves into the game with the same +spirit with which, twenty years before, they had faced the danger of +a runaway by the tandem of rampant hall chairs. A stray Boer or two +would have made an interesting diversion; but, even without the +Boers, a night guard in the open possessed its own interest. + +By four in the morning, the interest had waned perceptibly. The +establishment of their force in a convenient hut and the placing of +pickets had served to occupy an hour or so. After that, nothing +happened. The storm was increasing. The rain beat ceaselessly on the +corrugated iron roof of their shelter and made a dreary bass +accompaniment to the strident tenor of the rising wind. Inside the +but the men yawned and whispered together by turns. Carew's best +jokes began to fall a little flat, and Weldon held his watch to his +ear, to assure himself that it was still in active service. Then +hastily he thrust the watch into his pocket, gathered up his +sleeping-bag and removed himself to a remote corner of the hut, with +Carew and a dozen more after him. + +Not even the most enthusiastic champion of South African rights can +affirm that the South African citizen is heedful of the condition of +his lesser buildings. The rising wind had proved too much for the +hut. Its joints writhed a little, seesawed up and down a little, +then yawned like a weary old man. From a dozen points above, the +rain came pattering down, seeking with unerring instinct that +precise spot on each man's back where skin and collar meet. + +"Whither?" Carew queried, as Weldon made his fifth move. + +"Outside, to see what the pickets are about." + +"But it rains," Carew protested lazily. + +"So I observe. Still, I'd rather take it outside as it comes, +instead of having a gutter empty itself on me, when I am supposed to +be under cover." + +"Better stay in," Carew advised him. + +"No use. Sleep is out of the question, and I'd rather be moving; it +is less monotonous." + +"Go along, then, and look out for Boers. Can I have your bag?" + +"You're too wet; you'd soak up all the inside of it. If I am to get +a chill, I'd rather do it from my dampness than your own." Carew +laid hands on the bag. + +"What a selfish beast you are, Weldon!" he observed tranquilly. +"This is no sack-race; you can't go out to walk in your bag. In +fact, it takes two to make a navigable pair. Then why not let me +have it?" + +"Why didn't you bring your own?" + +Already Carew was arranging himself in his new covering. + +"I mislaid mine in Cape Town," he replied sleepily. "Now please go +away. I need my beauty nap." + +An hour later, he was roused by a sharp reversal of his normal +position. When he became fully awake, he was lying in a pool of +water in the middle of the hut, and Weldon was in possession of the +blankets and bag. + +"What's the row?" he asked thickly. "I'm a Canadian, out here +shooting Boers. Oh, I say!" And he was on his feet, saluting the man +at Weldon's side. + +"The only bag in the squadron, Captain Frazer," Weldon was +explaining. "The blankets are quite dry. Roll yourself up, and you +will be warm in a few minutes." + +Carew surveyed the transfer with merry, impartial eyes. + +"Well, I like that," he said, when the Captain's yellow head was all +that was visible above the encircling cocoon. "I thought you said +that you preferred to catch cold from your own wetness, Weldon. I +was merely damp; this man is a sponge." + +Before Weldon could answer, the yellow head turned, and the blue +eyes looked up into Carew's eyes laughingly. + +"Merely one of the privileges of rank, Carew," the Captain observed +as dryly as if he had not risen from his warm bed to swim the river +and walk a mile in the darkness and the downpour, in order to see +how the new boys were getting on. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +Captain Leo Frazer, age thirty and an Englishman, had a trick of +looking Fate between the eyes with those black-fringed blue eyes of +his, of accepting its gifts with gratitude, its occasional knocks +with cheery optimism. At Rugby he had ultimately been captain of the +school; at Oxford he had been of equal prowess in rowing and +football. Since taking his degree, he had been a successful doctor +in the intervals of time allowed him by his membership in one of the +crack regiments at home. He had never seriously contemplated the +possibility of active service; but Colenso had been too strong a +pull upon him. Leaving some scores of sorrowing patients to bemoan +him as already dead, he had promptly shipped for Cape Town. The year +of grace nineteen hundred had found him on the scene at most of its +exciting events. Where Fate refused to take him, he asserted his +strong hand and took Fate, until that weary lady was forced to go +hopping about the map of South Africa with the agility of a sand +flea. + +In battle, Frazer was always in the thickest spatter of bullets, +where he bowed himself to the inevitable and lay prone, though with +his face turned to one side to give free passage to the chaff which +carried his comrades through so many grim hours. In the presence of +danger, his humor never failed him. In those sorrowful hours which +followed the cessation of firing, no man was in greater demand than +he. Many a brave fellow had died with his hand shut fast over +Frazer's long, slim fingers; many a man's first, awful moments in +hospital had been soothed by the touch of those same firm, slim +hands. And in the singsongs around the camp fire, or at the mess +table, Frazer's voice was always heard, no matter how great the +tumult of a moment before. + +Like many another of his countrymen, Captain Frazer had learned +lessons since he had left the ship at Cape Town, just a year before. +He had come out from England, trained to the inflexibly formal +tactics of the British army. Again and again he had seen those +tactics proved of no avail in the face of an invisible enemy and an +almost inexpugnable country. He had learned the nerve-racking +tension of being exposed to a storm of bullets that came apparently +from nowhere to cut down the British lines as the hail cuts down the +standing grain; he had learned the shock of seeing the level veldt, +over which he was marching, burst into a line of fire at his very +feet from a spot where it seemed that scarce a dozen men could lie +in hiding, to say nothing of a dozen scores. He had learned that, +under such fire, a man's first duty was to drop flat on his face, to +push up a tiny breastwork of earth and to fire from behind that +slender shelter. England could not afford to send her sons over seas +for the sake of having them slaughtered by needless obedience to the +laws of martial good form. Fighting a nation of hunters, they too +must adopt the methods of the hunt. And, most of all, Captain Frazer +had learned the imperative need of mounted riflemen. Two months +before, while lying up at Durban until his wrist had healed from a +Mauser bullet, he had come into close contact with the Marquis of +Tullibardine. As a result of that contact, January had found Captain +Frazer in Cape Town, ready to take command of the newly enlisted +Scottish Horse. + +Now, as he looked over his force at Piquetberg Road, he was +congratulating himself that his men were fit for service, very fit. +Frazer knew something of men. Experience had assured him that these +men were worth training and his months of service under the great +Field Marshal had taught him that an officer could be a man among +his men, yet lose not one jot of his dignity. Accordingly, Frazer +set himself to the task in band. By the time he had been at +Piquetberg Road for two days, he knew the name and face of every man +in his squadron. A week later he could tell to a nicety which of his +men were engaged to girls at home, which of them had heard of one +Rudyard Kipling, and which of them could be counted upon in an +emergency. The two latter counts Weldon filled absolutely. In regard +to the first, Frazer permitted himself a moment of acute uneasiness. +It had been in a spirit of unmitigated joy that Frazer had met Ethel +Dent in Cape Town, on the morning of New Year's day. In London he +had known the girl just well enough to admire her intensely, not +well enough, however, to have found out that she had any permanent +connection with South Africa. His joy had lasted until the hour of +his calling upon her, three days later; then it had received a +sudden check. Ethel had been as cordial as ever; nevertheless, her +talk had been full of the young Canadian whom he had met in the +drive. Frazer was intensely human. After a year of separation he +would have preferred to bound the talk by the experiences of their +two selves. + +As a natural consequence, he had developed a strong prejudice +against Weldon; but Weldon, all unconsciously, had done much to +remove that prejudice. Not every man could manage a crazy, bucking +broncho in any such fashion as that; fewer still could come out of +the scrimmage, unhurt, to bow to a young woman with a cordiality +quite untinged with boyish bravado. That day at Maitland, Frazer had +registered his mental approval of the long-legged, lean Canadian +with his keen gray eyes and his wrists of bronze. He had registered +a second note of approval, that first night at Piquetberg Road, when +Weldon, with no unnecessary words, had contrived to impress upon the +mind of his captain that he was to be included in the guard to cross +the river. Totally obedient and respectful, Weldon nevertheless had +given the impression of a man who intended to win his own way. +Moreover, the direction of that way appeared to be straight towards +the front. + +Meanwhile, peacefully unconscious of this diagnosis, Weldon was +sitting on the river bank, prosaically occupied in scooping out the +remaining taste left in an almost-empty jam tin. Beside him, Carew +was similarly occupied. Two more jam tins were between them and, +exactly opposite the pair of jam tins, there squatted a burly +Kaffir, young, alert and crowned with a thatch of hair which by +rights should have sprouted from the back of a sable pig. His mouth +was slightly open, and now and then his tongue licked out, like the +tongue of an eager dog. Aside from his hair, his costume consisted +of one black sock worn in lieu of muffler and a worn pair of khaki +trousers. + +Behind him, the river caught the sunset light and turned it to a +sheet of flowing copper; beyond stretched the open country in long, +waving lines that ended in the deep yellow band of the afterglow. +Above them, the sky was blue; but it dropped from the blue zenith to +the yellow horizon through every imaginable shade of emerald and +topaz until all other shades lost themselves in one vivid blaze of +burnt orange. It had been a day of intense heat. Already, however, +the falling twilight and the inevitable eastward shift of the wind +had brought the first hint of the evening chill. + +Weldon shrugged his shoulders. + +"Hurry up, Carew," he adjured his companion. "I am for leaving our +feast and hieing us back to the sanctuary." + +"Right, oh!" Carew raised his jam tin and took careful aim at a rock +in mid stream. + +Instantly the Kaffir hitched forward. + +"Mine?" he demanded. + +Carew stayed his arm. + +"What for?" + +"Eat. Um good." + +"Nothing in there but atmosphere, sonny. You can get that out of any +box. Suppose I can hit that little black point, Weldon?" + +"Not if I know it," Weldon said coolly, as he tossed his own tin to +the boy and, seizing that of Carew, threw it after its mate. "Let +the little coon have his lick, Carew. It's not pretty to watch him +go at it, tongue first; but we can't all be Chesterfields. What is +your name, sonny?" + +The boy paused with suspended tongue, while he rolled the great +whites of his eyes up at the questioner. Then, the whites still +turned upon Weldon, he took one more hasty lick. + +"Kruger Roberts," he said then, detaching himself for an instant +from his treasure. "Oh, I infer you like to sit on fences?" Weldon +said interrogatively. + +"Ya, Boss." + +"Which side do you intend to come down?" + +"Me no come down," the boy answered nonchalantly, more from inherent +indifference than from any comprehension of Weldon's allegory. + +"All right. Stop where you are. Meanwhile, I think I should call you +Jamboree." + +"Ya, Boss." The face vanished from sight behind the tilted tin. Then +it reappeared, and a huge finger pointed to the remaining tins. +"Mine, too?" + +But already the boy was forgotten. Weldon was following hard on the +heels of the sentry who had dashed through the gate in the +churchyard wall. + +Four o'clock the next morning, that darkest hour which, by its very +darkness, heralds the coming dawn, found C. Squadron moving out from +the gray-walled churchyard, their faces set towards the eastern +mountains. All night long they had stood under arms, ready for the +attack which might be at hand. By dawn, they were well on their way +towards the laager, fifteen miles distant, whence had come the +scouting hand of Boers who, for two days past, had made leisurely +efforts to pick off their scattered sentinels. At the head of the +little troop rode Frazer. Behind him and as close to his heels as +military law allowed, came Weldon, mounted on the same little black +horse which had so often carried him to the hunt at home. Horse and +rider both sniffed the chilly dawn with eager anticipation. Each +knew that something was in store for them; each contrived to impress +upon the other his determination to make a record, whatever +happened. For one short minute, Weldon let his strong hand rest on +the satiny neck. He could feel the answering pressure of the muscles +beneath the shining skin. That was enough. He and The Nig were in +perfect understanding, one with another. + +"Weldon?" + +He spurred forward to the Captain's side and saluted. + +"In the flurry, last night, I forgot to tell you that Miss Dent +comes to Piquetberg Road, to-day. She is to visit a cousin, Miss +Mellen; and she wished me to tell you that she hoped you could find +time to call upon her." + +The Captain spoke low, his eyes, after the first moment, steadily +fixed upon the line of hills before them. Weldon answered in the +same low tone. + +"You have heard from Miss Dent?" + +"Yes. A note came, last night. She is to be here for a month, while +her uncle is in England on a business trip. Mr. Mellen is the mayor. +You probably know the house." + +"I can easily find it. Please tell Miss Dent I shall be sure to call +as--" + +A blinding flash ran along the line of hills close in the foreground +where, an instant before, had been only empty ground. There was a +sharp crackle, a strident hum and then the muffled plop of bullets +burying themselves in the earth six hundred feet in the rear. The +Nig grew taut in every muscle; then she edged slowly towards the +huge khaki-colored horse that bore the Captain, and, for an instant, +the two muzzles touched. + +"Too long a range, man. Try it again," Frazer observed coolly, as +his glance swept the empty landscape, then, turning, swept the faces +of his men. + +That last sight was to his liking. He nodded to himself and +straightened in his saddle, while the orders dropped from his lips, +swift, clean-cut and brooking no question nor delay. Ten men went +galloping off far to the southward, to vanish among the foothills +and reappear on the pass behind the enemy, while a dozen Boers, +springing up from the bowels of the earth, followed hard on their +heels. Ten more took the horses and fell back out of range of the +firing; and the remainder of the squadron stayed in their places and +helped to play out the game. + +It was all quite simple, all a matter of course. Instead of the fuss +and fume and chaos of fighting, it had worked itself out like a +problem in mathematics, and Weldon, as he lay on the ground with his +Lee-Enfield cuddled into the curve of his shoulder, felt himself +reducing it to a pair of simultaneous equations: if X Britons equal +Y Boers on the firing line, and Y Britons draw off the fire of W +Boers, then how many Britons--But there came a second flash and a +second spatter, nearer, this time; and he lost his mathematics in a +sudden rush of bad temper which made him long to fly at the +invisible foe and beat him about the head with his clubbed rifle. It +was no especial satisfaction for a man in his position to climb up +on his elbow and help to discharge a volley at an empty landscape. +The war pictures he had been prone to study in his boyhood had been +full of twisty-necked prancing horses and bright-coated swaggering +men, all on their feet, and very hot and earnest. Here the picture +was made up of a row of brown-clothed forms lying flat on their +stomachs and, far before them, a single flat-topped hill and a few +heaps of scattered black rocks. And this was modern war. + +There came a third blaze, a third hum of Mauser bullets. Then he +heard a swift intake of the breath, followed by Carew's voice, the +drawling, languid voice which Weldon had learned to associate with +moments of deep excitement. + +"Say, Weldon, some beggar has hit me in the shoulder!" + +Then of a sudden Weldon realized that at last he knew what it meant +to be under fire. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +"Oh, truce! Truce!" Alice Mellen protested. "Don't talk shop, +Cooee." + +"It's not shop; it is topics of the day," Ethel responded +tranquilly. "Besides, I want to hear about Mr. Carew. Is he +dangerous?" + +Weldon laughed. + +"No, for his wound; yes, for his temper. One was only a scratch; the +other way, he was horribly cut up." + +"Did he swear?" Alice queried, while she distributed lumps of sugar +among the cups. + +"Alice!" + +"Don't pretend to be shocked, Cooee. Even if you haven't been out +but one season, you ought to know what happens when a man turns +testy. Frankly, I think it is a healthy sign, if a man stops to +swear when he is hit. It shows there are no morbid secretions." + +"You prefer superficial outbreaks, Miss Mellen?" Frazer inquired, as +he handed Ethel her cup. + +"Yes. They are far less likely to produce mortification later on," +she answered, laughing up into his steady eyes. "What do you do, +when you are hit, Captain Frazer?" + +"They call me Lucky Frazer, you know," he replied. "I've been in no +end of scrimmages, and I was never hit but once." + +Bending over, Ethel turned back the cloth and thumped on the under +side of the table. + +"Unberufen and Absit omen," she said hastily. "Don't tempt +Providence too far, Captain Frazer. At my coming-out reception, I +met a man who boasted that he always broke everything within range, +from hearts to china. Ten minutes later, he tripped over a rug and +fell down on top of the plate of salad he was bringing me. And he +didn't break a thing--" + +"Except his own record," Weldon supplemented unexpectedly. "I +suspect he also broke the third commandment. The keeping of that and +the falling down in public are totally incompatible." + +"And that reminds me, you were going to tell what Mr. Carew did when +he was hit," Ethel reminded him. + +"I never tell tales, Miss Dent." + +"But, really, how does it feel to be under fire?" she persisted. + +"Ask Captain Frazer. He has had more experience than I." + +She barely turned her eyes towards Frazer's face. + +"He is talking to my cousin and won't hear. Were you frightened?" + +"No." + +"Truly? But you wouldn't confess, if you were." + +He blushed at the mockery in her tone. + +"Yes. Why not? I expected to be desperately afraid; but I was only +desperately angry." + +"At what?" + +"Nothing. That's the point. There was nothing in sight to be angry +at. Bullets came from nowhere in a pelting shower. Most of them +didn't hit anything; there was no cloud from which the shower could +come. One resented it, without knowing exactly why. It was being the +big fellow who can't hit back when the little one torments him." + +"Cooee!" + +The remonstrance was long-drawn and forceful. This time, Ethel +heeded. + +"What is it, Alice?" + +"Do you remember that, this noon, we agreed not to mention the war? +These men fight almost without ceasing. When they aren't fighting, +they do sentry and stables and things. This is an afternoon off for +them. We really must talk accordingly." + +"What are you and Captain Frazer talking about?" + +"Cricket and seven-year locusts." + +Ethel held out her empty cup. + +"Very well. Then Mr. Weldon and I will discuss mosquitoes and seven-day +Baptists. No sugar, please, and I'd like another of those snappy +things." + +"Does that mean a Mauser?" Weldon asked, as he brought back her cup. + +"No. I mean biscuits, not cats. But you sinned then. However, my +cousin has her eye upon us, so we must be distinctly frivolous. Is +there any especially peaceful subject you would like to discuss?" + +"Yes. Please explain your name." + +She looked up at him with sudden literalness. + +"It is for my grandmother. For four hundred years there has been an +Ethel Dent in every generation." + +"I meant the other." + +"Oh, Cooee?" She laughed. "It dates from our first coming out here, +when we were children. My old Kaffir nurse--I was only five, that +first trip--used to call me so, and every one took it up. We went +back to England, after a few weeks, and the name was dropped; but my +uncle stayed out here, and he and my cousin always kept the old +word." + +Weldon stirred his tea thoughtfully. + +"I rather like it, do you know?" he said. + +"Surely, you don't think it fits me?" + +His eyes moved from her shining hair to the hem of her elaborate +white gown. Then he smiled and shook his head. + +"Not to-day, perhaps. But the Miss Dent of the Dunottar Castle--" + +She interrupted him a little abruptly. + +"Does that mean I am two-sided?" + +"No; only complex." + +She smiled in gracious response. + +"You did that very well, Mr. Weldon," she said, with a slight accent +of superiority which galled him. Then, before he could reply, she +changed the subject, speaking with a lowered voice. "And what of the +Captain?" + +It suited his mood not to understand her. + +"In what way?" + +"Every way. What do you think of him?" + +Then she drew back, abashed by the fervor of the answer, as he said +slowly,-- + +"That the Creator made him, and then broke the pattern." + +The little pause which followed caught the alert attention of the +hostess, and convinced her that it was time to shift the groups to +another combination. A swift gesture summoned Weldon to the table, +while Frazer dropped into his vacant chair. Ethel met the Captain +with only a half-concealed eagerness. This was not the first time +that a consciously trivial word of hers had been crushed out of life +by Weldon's serious dignity. She was never quite able to understand +his mood upon such occasions. The man was no prig. At times, he was +as merry as a boy. At other times, he showed an inflexible +seriousness which left her with the vague feeling of being somehow +or other in the wrong. The result was a mood of pique, rather than +of antagonism. Up to that time, Ethel Dent had known only unreserved +approval. Weldon's occasional gravity, to her mind, suggested +certain reservations. By way of overcoming these reservations, she +focussed her whole attention upon Captain Leo Frazer. Across the +table, Weldon, in the intervals of his talk with his hostess, could +hear the low murmur of their absorbed conversation. + +It had been at Ethel's suggestion that the tea-table had been set, +that hot afternoon, under the trees in the heart of the garden. Just +at the crossing of two broad walks, a vine-roofed kiosk gave shelter +from the late sunshine, while its bamboo screens were half raised to +show the long perspective of garden walk and distant lawn. Save for +the orange grove at the left and the ash-colored leaves of the +silver wattle above them, Weldon could almost have fancied himself +in England. The lawn with its conventional tennis court was +essentially English; English, too, the tray with its fixtures. +There, however, the resemblance stopped. The ebony handmaiden who +brought out the tray was never found in private life outside the +limits of South Africa. When she sought foreign countries, it was +merely as a denizen of a midway plaisance. + +"Yes, and their names are their most distinctive feature," Alice +assented to Weldon's comment. + +"More than their mouths?" he asked, with a flippant recollection +of Kruger Roberts engrossed in his jam tin. + +"At least as much so," she responded, laughing. "You notice that I +called our maid Syb. She told me, when she came, that her old master +named her Sybarite. I understood it, the next day, when I found her +snoring on the drawing-room sofa." + +During the time of her answer, Weldon took his opportunity to look +steadily at his young hostess. Up to the moment of the shifting of +the groups, he had been too fully absorbed in the pleasure of once +more meeting Ethel to pay much heed to any one else. Now he turned +his gray eyes upon Alice Mellen, partly from real interest in her +personality; partly to counterbalance the rapt attention which Ethel +was bestowing upon the Captain. She had been the selfsame Ethel, a +bundle of contradictions that attracted him at one moment and +antagonized him at the next. He liked her absolutely; his very +liking for her increased the sense of antagonism when, for the +instant, she departed from his ideals of what she ought to be. And +yet, Weldon was candid enough to admit to himself that she departed +from them, rather than fell below them. Often as she had antagonized +him, she had never really disappointed him. + +As for Alice Mellen, he confessed himself surprised. Gathering +together all that Ethel had ever told him of her cousin, of her +living her entire life out there in the southern end of South +Africa, of her desire to be a nurse, he had pieced together an +effigy of the combined traits of a Hottentot and a vivandiere. This +girl answered to neither description. Her clothes and her manners +and her accent all had come, albeit with slow indirectness, from +London. Not only would she and her gowns pass muster in a crowd; but +furthermore she would end by being the focal point of a good share +of that crowd. Nevertheless, Weldon found it impossible to discover +her most distinctive point. Even while he sought it, he wondered to +himself whether this might not be another cousin of whom he had +never heard. The women doctors and nurses at home wore stout shoes +and had pockets let in at the seams of their frocks, useful, +doubtless, but with an unlovely tendency to yawn and show their +contents. This girl was a mere fluff of pale yellow organdie which +brought out the purplish lights in her ink-black hair. + +"Did you have the heart to disturb her?" he asked, reverting to the +subject of Syb's nap. + +"I was forced to. She was on all the cushions, and I needed one for +myself. She took it in good part, though. She told me she had been +disturbed, the night before, by the snoring of the parrot, two rooms +away. As a result, she left me feeling that the apology really ought +to come from me." + +"Is that the way of the race?" Weldon queried, as he set down his +empty cup. "If so, you make me tremble." + +"Why?" + +"Because, without in the least intending it, I have accumulated a +boy." + +She looked up suddenly. + +"How do you mean?" + +"I don't know how. It apparently did itself. It was the day before +we went out to be fired at, and he said his name was Kruger Roberts, +and I fed him some empty jam tins." + +"A huge black boy with bristly hair?" she interpolated. + +"Yes, and a mouth so large that one wonders how his face can hold it +all." + +She sat up alertly, resting her folded arms on the edge of the +table. + +"This becomes interesting. Kruger Roberts is Syb's avowed and lawful +lover." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Mine also, as it appears. As I say, I fed him jam tins. There were +four of them, and they were very jammy. Then we became interested in +the Boers, and I forgot Kruger Roberts. When I came back, yesterday +morning, dead tired and my horse all in a mess, I found Kruger +Roberts calmly sitting on my extra blankets, cleaning my shoes with +Paddy's best dishcloth. Paddy was in a wild state of mutiny, and +told me that that chattering baboon had vowed he was Trooper +Weldon's boy. Since then, I have tried in vain to dislodge him; but +it is no use. The Nig is like a piece of satin, and it is all I can +do to keep my compressed-paper buttons from winking defiance at the +Boers on the northern edge of Sahara." + +Alice Mellen laughed with the air of one who understood the +situation. + +"You builded better than you knew, Mr. Weldon, and your jam tins +will be no house of cards. The Kaffirs are an unaccountable race of +beings, lazy and good-natured. Once let them love or hate, though, +and all their strength goes into the working out of the feeling. +Kruger Roberts obviously has a sweet tooth; the day may come when +your enemies may find it changed to a poisoned fang. Do you want the +advice of one who knows the country?" + +"I do," he assented heartily. + +"Then keep your Kruger Roberts," she said decisively. + +"But what shall I do with him?" + +"Let him do for you." + +"As a valet? I've never been used to such luxury," he protested, +laughing. + +She shook her head. + +"Not only valet. He will be groom, cook, guide, interpreter and, +whether you wish it or not, your chum. Moreover, he will do it all +with the face of a clown and the manner of a tricksy monkey. As a +panacea for the blues, you will find him invaluable." + +There was a little pause. Then she added, with a complete change of +tone, "My cousin has spoken of you so often, Mr. Weldon." + +"And of you," he returned. + +The directness of her answer pleased him. + +"Then we ought to start as friends, and not waste time over mere +acquaintance." + +"I thought there were no acquaintances out here," he answered +lightly. "In camp, our first question is: Friend, or foe?" + +"In the towns, we have every grade between. Often the same person +slides through all the grades in a single day. But you haven't +answered me." + +His eyes met her eyes frankly. + +"About the friendship? I thought that wasn't necessary." + +"Customary, however," she suggested, with a smile. + +"But, as I say, there are no customs here," he retorted. "At least, +I should have said so, this morning. Now I am not so sure." Then he +laughed. "I've bungled that horribly, Miss Mellen. What I meant was +that you have given me a very good time, this afternoon." + +"Prove it by coming again," she advised him. + +"If I may. I don't wish to wear out my welcome; but one hasn't so +many friends in South Africa." + +"What about Kruger Roberts?" she reminded him. + +"That gives me two." + +"And Captain Frazer?" + +Weldon's eyes lighted. + +"Some day, perhaps. I would be willing to wait for that." + +Gravely her glance roved from the alert young Canadian at her side +to the older, more steadfast face across the table. Then she shook +her head. + +"You will not have to wait long, Mr. Weldon?" she said quietly. +"Captain Frazer spoke of you, a week ago. I have known him for +months; I know what, with him, stands for enthusiasm." + +"I wish you might be a true prophet. I would honor you, even here in +your own garden. For the sake of Captain Frazer's regard, I would +give up most things," he replied, too low to be overheard by the +couple who were now chaffing each other above their cooling cups. + +Later on, he wondered a little how far the apparent inconsequence of +her next question was the result of chance. + +"What about Cooee?" she asked, in a voice as low as his own had +been. + +He hesitated. Then he looked up at her steadily. + +"Miss Mellen, I am sure I don't know," he answered gravely. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +"Beastly shame that the Boers hadn't buried themselves instead of +the guns!" Carew remarked, as he wrestled with a tough thong of +bully beef which yielded to his jaws much as an India-rubber eraser +might have done. + +Without making any pretence of extracting nutriment from his own +ration, Weldon converted it into a missile and hurled it straight at +his companion. + +"There's this difference," he returned pithily; "a gun is a good +enough fellow to deserve Christian burial. Carew, do you ever yearn +for the fleshpots?" + +Without bringing his jaws to a halt, Carew shook his head. + +"Do you?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. + +"Yes, if they could be brought here; not otherwise. I like the game; +but I also like a little more oats mixed with my fodder. How long is +it since we had a square meal?" + +"How long since we halted in that pineapple grove, coming up from +Durban?" Carew retorted. "That made up for a good deal. You have no +cause to rebel, though. Between Paddy and Kruger Bobs, you stand in +for all the tidbits that are going." + +With a mock sigh, Weldon pointed backward over his shoulder. + +"But unfortunately Kruger Bobs and The Nig are left behind in the +shadow of Naauwpoort's dreary heights. By the way, Carew, does it +ever strike you that these Boers make a lot more fuss over their +spelling than they do over their pronunciation? At home, we'd get as +good results out of dozens less letters." + +"They make as good use of their extra letters as they do of their +extra bullets," Carew returned tranquilly. "They've been sniping, +all the morning long, and they have only hit a man and a quarter +now." + +"Which was the quarter?" + +Turning, Carew displayed a jagged hole in his left sleeve. Weldon +laughed unfeelingly. + +"Can't you keep out of range, you old target? If there's a bullet +coming your way, it's bound to graze you." + +"This is only the fourth. Only one of those really meant business. +Oh, hang it! There they go again!" he burst out, as a distant line +of rocks crackled explosively and, a moment later, a random bullet +opened up the side of his shoe. + +With the swift change of occupation to which the past four months +had accustomed them, they were soon in the saddle and galloping off +across the rolling veldt. Before them, a pair of guns were pounding +away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes, and beyond, over the +crest of the next ridge, scores of thick-set, burly figures were +racing in search of shelter, with a fragment of the Scottish Horse +in hot pursuit. + +Neck and neck in the vanguard raced Weldon and Carew, with Captain +Frazer's huge khaki-colored horse hard on their heels. To Weldon, +the next hour was one of fierce excitement and pleasure. The shriek +of the shells, long since left behind, the flying figures before +them, the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she +stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt, the khaki-colored +desert, dotted with huge black rocks and shimmering with the +heat waves which rose above it towards the midday sun: his pulses +tingled and his head throbbed with the glorious rush of it all. + +And then the slouching figures were met by other slouching figures, +and reluctantly Weldon drew in his horse, as the halt was ordered. +Only madness would prolong the chase against such heavy odds. Mere +sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came +up. The action must wait, while the heliograph flashed its call for +help. Weldon grumbled low into Carew's ear, as the minutes dragged +themselves along, broken only by indeterminate volleys. + +"I have exactly five rounds left," he said at length. "I believe in +obedience, Carew; but, when I get this used up, by jingo, I'll pitch +into those fellows on my own account." + +"Keep cool," Carew advised him temperately. "You always were a +thriftless fellow; you must have been wasting your fire. Oh, I say, +what's the row in the rear?" + +"The column, most likely. It's time, too. Those fellows would be on +us in a minute. Ah ha!" And Weldon drew a quick breath of +admiration, as the guns came up at the gallop under the watchful eye +of the Imperial Yeomanry. + +Once in position on a rise to the left, quickly the guns unlimbered +and opened fire, while the sergeants gathered around the boxes of +spare cartridges on the ground beside the panting ammunition horse. +Then at last came the order for the advance, the order so eagerly +awaited by Weldon, maddened by his long exposure to the bullets of +his unseen foe. In extended order, the squadrons galloped forward +until their goal was a scant five hundred yards away, when of a +sudden a murderous fire broke out from the rocks in front of them, +emptying many a saddle and dropping many a horse. Under such +conditions, safety lay only in an unswerving charge. + +Close on their leaders' heels, the troopers spurred forward and, +revolver in right hand, rifle in left, they charged over the +remaining bit of ground and into the midst of the Boer position. +Briton and Boer met, face to face. Revolvers cracked; Boers dropped. + +Mausers crashed; Britons fell. And then, through and over, the +British charge had passed. + +Even then Weldon found no place for pause. From behind the Boer +position, a band of their reinforcements came galloping down upon +him. Caught between the two lines, the squadrons wheeled about, fell +again upon the broken enemy, dashed through them and, amid the +leaden hail, retired upon their own guns. And now once more the +gunners could reopen fire, and the shells dropped thick and fast. +The moment for a general advance had come. In open order, a thousand +men dashed forward and reached the ridge, only to see the retiring +foe galloping away in all directions across the open veldt. A halt +was ordered, to rest the winded mounts. Pickets were thrown out on +front and flank, while the British awaited their approaching convoy. +That night, the column rested upon the veldt at Vlaakfontein. + +After the rush of the day, its hope and its succeeding +disappointment, Weldon was long in falling asleep. Carew was out on +picket; Captain Frazer, coat off and sleeves rolled to his +shoulders, was busy among the wounded, and Weldon had cared to make +few other close friends in the squadron. Around him, he could hear +the murmurs of other sleepless ones; but he lay silent, his arms +under his head, his face turned upward to the shining perspective of +the stars. In similar perspective there ranged them-selves before +his mind the events of the past twelve weeks. + +Already the month at Piquetberg Road seemed a chapter out of another +volume. It had culminated in that languid afternoon spent around the +tea-table under the wattle tree in the garden, culminated there and +also ended there. With the unexpectedness that marks all things in a +time of war, the next noon found him steaming across the Cape Flats, +with Maitland in sight. Two days later, they were loaded on an empty +hospital ship returning to Durban. Piquetberg Road was child's play +now, for the front was almost in sight. The voyage had been beastly; +but after it had come the real beginning of things. Natal, in those +days of late February, had seemed deserving of its name, a true +Garden of Africa. The crossing was now a memory of heavy grades, of +verdant country, of ripened fruits. There had been the week's delay +at Pietermaritzburg where they had tasted a bit of civilization in +the intervals of completing their outfits; there had been the brief +stop at Ladysmith, already recovered from her hardships of the year +before, then the crossing the border into the Transvaal where the +verdure slowly vanished to give place to the dreary wastes of red-brown +veldt. At Johannesburg, he had manufactured an excuse for a +long letter to Ethel who-- + +"Show a leg there!" + +The sergeant's voice at his ear called him back to the realities of +life. He sat up as alertly as if he had slept upon eider-down. + +By eight o'clock, Weldon was out on the veldt, two miles from camp. +Before him, a force of Yeomanry was guarding the two guns; around +him, a detail from his own squadron protected the flank on the +right. And, still farther to the right, a cloud of yellowish smoke +rose skyward across the yellower sunshine. Then, of a sudden, out +from the heart of the wall of smoke came a muffled thud and roar, +confused at first, growing strident and more detached until, +sweeping from the haze of smoke, five score Boer horsemen rode in a +bolt-like rush, fierce and uncheckable. Without swerving to right or +left, they charged straight towards the Yeomanry drawn up beside the +guns, drove them back and shot down the gunners almost to a man. An +instant later, the guns were whirled about and trained upon their +quondam owners. + +From over his breakfast, that morning, the General raised his head +to listen to the booming of the fifteen-pounders. No need to tell +him that heavy fighting had begun. His experienced ear had taught +him that magazine firing meant business. His hand went in search of +his field-glasses. + +"General, the enemy have captured the guns. The Major asks for +assistance to retake them." + +The General lowered his glasses. Covered with dust, and breathless, +Weldon was before him. + +"Mount every available man, and gallop to the scene of action!" + +Orderlies carried the command to the different regiments. Before the +mounted men could start, the infantry were half-way to the guns. But +already shells were falling into the camp, telling every man that +the guns were in the hands of the Boers. + +In the forefront of the remainder of his squadron, Weldon found +himself borne onward in the rush, straight from the camp to the +right flank of the guns. The broncho's swinging trot had long since +changed to a gallop, and her eyes were flashing with the wicked +light of her old, unbroken days, as she went tearing across the +sun-baked veldt, up and down over the rises and through the rare bits of +thicket at a pace which Weldon would have been powerless to check. +He had no mind to check it. The crisp air, full of ozone and warmed +by the sun, set his cheeks to tingling with its impact. A true +rider, he let his mood follow the temper of his horse and, like a +pair of wild things, they went bolting away far towards the head of +the squadrons. + +And always the firing of the guns grew nearer and faster and more +murderous. + +He took no note of passing moments, none of the miles he had ridden +during the past days. These counted for naught, while, with +photographic distinctness, the picture before him fixed itself +sharply in his mind: the dust-colored troops on the dusty veldt, the +brown-painted guns, the distant line of the enemy's fire and, far to +the eastward, the wall of smoke which was fast sweeping towards them +from the acres of burning veldt. + +"Captain Frazer, the General orders you to take up your position in +the kraal on the extreme right, and to hold it at any cost." + +From his place at the Captain's side, Weldon glanced at the orderly, +then, turning, looked across the veldt to the four gray walls +surrounding the clump of trees a mile away. His hand tightened on +the curb, and he straightened in the saddle, as the Captain led the +way into the purgatory beyond, an orderly purgatory, but crossed +with leaden lines of shot and shell. + +At such moments, the brain ceases to act coherently. When Weldon +came to himself, he was kneeling behind the old gray wall, revolver +in hand, firing full in the faces of the Boer horsemen, scarce +fifteen feet away. Carew, his right foot dangling, had been hustled +to the rear of the kraal where the gray broncho and her mates were +in comparative shelter. + +"Weldon?" + +He looked up in a half-dazed fashion. The wall of smoke was already +shutting down about the retreating Boers. Beside him stood the +Captain, his yellow hair clinging to his dripping face, his blue +eyes, under their fringe of black lashes, glittering like polished +gems. Coated as he was with dust and sweat, his clothing torn and +spotted with the fray, he looked ten times more the gallant +gentleman, even, than when he had met Weldon in the heart-shaped +bit of lawn encircled by the Dents' driveway. Now he held out his +hand. + +"Splendidly done, old man! One doesn't forget such things." + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +Captain Frazer had scarcely finished speaking, when the voice of the +General sounded in their ears. + +"A plucky attack and a plucky defeat, Captain Frazer. Kemp is a man +worth fighting. You are not wounded?" + +"Thanks to Trooper Weldon," the Captain told him, with a smile. + +The General's keen glance included them both. + +"Good! And now can you spare me a trusty man? One who can ride? I +must have some despatches at Krugersdorp before midnight. I should +like some one from your squadron." + +The eyes of Captain Frazer and Weldon met. Again the General's keen +glance was on them both; then it concentrated itself upon the +younger man. + +"I am ready," he answered to its unspoken question. + +"You are sure you are fit? It is forty miles, and the rain will be +on us inside of an hour." + +"It makes no difference." + +As he spoke, Weldon felt himself surveyed from hat to shoelace. + +"Very well. Get yourself fed, and come to my tent in an hour. It +will be better to wait until dusk before starting, for these hills +are infested with Boers. Do you know the country?" + +"Partly. I can learn the rest." + +"You need a remount." + +Weldon stroked the little gray broncho. + +"If I had my own horse. Otherwise, I prefer this. I can trust her, +even if she is tired." + +Again the glance swept him over, beginning at the boyish face, +resolute and eager beneath its streaks of red-brown dust. Then, as +Weldon saluted, the General turned and rode away, with the Captain +at his side. + +"You've the making of a man there, Captain Frazer," was his sole +comment. + +Weldon, meanwhile, was allowing the little gray broncho to pick her +own dainty way out of the shambles about her feet. Then, once free +from the litter of men and horses, he turned her head to the spot +where, he had been told, his squadron were gathering together their +diminished forces. As he rode slowly onward, he was surprised to see +how low the sun had dropped. The fighting must have lasted longer +than he had thought. It had been hot and heavy; but at least he had +not funked it. For so much he could be thankful. In so far as he +could recall any of his emotions as he had dashed into range of the +pitiless firing, they had been summed up in a dull rage against the +enemy, mingled with a vague hope that no harm should come to the +plucky little mount. Just one instant's pause he could remember. +That was when he had put forth all his strength to check her pace +until he could readjust a strap that was plainly galling her. And +afterwards? Not even the thoroughbred Nig could have played her part +in the fight with more steady gallantry. Stooping, he eased the bit +and patted the firm gray neck where the mane swept upward for its +arching fall. + +"Boss?" + +He straightened in his saddle. + +"Kruger Bobs! By all special providences, where did you come from?" + +"Naauwpoort. Kruger Bobs come bring Nig to Boss." + +"Kruger Bobs, you're a genius." + +Kruger Bobs vanished behind his smile. + +"Ya, Boss," he replied then. "Boss all right?" + +"Yes, all right." + +"Dutchmans no killed Boss?" + +"No." + +Doubtfully Kruger Bobs shook his sable bristles. He had heard the +firing, such firing as he had never dreamed of until then, and it +seemed to him impossible that any man could come unscathed out of +the heart of it. Of Weldon's being in the very heart of it, no doubt +had once stained the loyal whiteness of his soul. To assure himself +of Weldon's safety, he ambled around the gray broncho in a clumsy +circle. The gray broncho showed her appreciation of the attention by +nipping viciously at the flank of his horse. By Weldon's left side, +Kruger Bobs halted and pointed an accusing forefinger at his knee. + +"Dutchmans hurt Boss," he said anxiously. + +"Where?" + +"Dere." In spite of his effort for sternness, the voice of Kruger +Bobs quavered with anxiety. + +Bending over, Weldon glanced down at the dark red stain on the coil +of khaki serge. Then, all at once, he remembered the sudden stinging +of his leg, just before he had started the gray broncho on her last +mad rush across the lead-swept plain. In the excitement that +followed, the matter had entirely passed out of his mind. Even now +that his attention was called to it, he was conscious of no physical +discomfort. + +"Kruger Bobs go for doctor?" the boy was urging. + +Weldon laughed reassuringly. + +"It's nothing, Kruger Bobs. I've no time to fool with doctors now." + +"What Boss do?" + +"Feed Piggie, eat something, look up Mr. Carew and then get to the +General's tent, inside an hour." + +"What for de big boss soldier?" + +"He wants me." + +"Ya?" Kruger Bobs demanded uneasily. + +"To ride a despatch." + +"Despatch!" Kruger Bobs exploded in hot wrath. "Kruger Bobs go +despatch; Boss go bed." "Can't do it, Kruger Bobs. This is war, and +I've given my word to the General. It was an order, and I had to do +it." Backing his horse off for a step or two, Kruger Bobs sat +looking at his master and shaking his head mournfully. Then he +straightened in the saddle. + +"Boss go; Kruger Bobs go, too," he said, with steady decision. + +Less than an hour later, outside the General's tent Kruger Bobs sat +astride The Nig, with the rein of the gray broncho in his hand. The +clouds, since noon banked low in the eastern horizon, had swept up +across the sky, and already the rain was pattering drearily over the +hunched-up shoulders of Kruger Bobs. Inside the tent, the colloquy +was brief. Twice Weldon repeated over the substance of his +despatches and his instructions regarding their destination. The +despatches were slipped between the layers of his shoe-sole, the cut +stitches were replaced, and Weldon rose to his feet. + +"My nigger has come from Naauwpoort, bringing me a fresh mount," he +said then. "May I take him with me?" + +"What is he?" + +"A Kaffir." + +"From where?" + +"Piquetberg Road." + +"Can you trust him?" + +Weldon's eyes met the eyes of the General steadily. "As I would +trust myself," he answered. + +Five minutes later, Weldon passed out of the tent door. At his +quarters, he dismounted and went in search of a blanket. Muffled in +the thick folds, the horses' feet would make no sound on the +hard-baked earth. Kruger Bobs, meanwhile, went out to reconnoitre in +order to discover a possible gap in the line of Boer pickets. + +The pickets once passed, Weldon mounted once more and, with Kruger +Bobs following close behind, rode carefully away into the inky, +drizzling night. For the first hour, he rode steadily and with +comparative comfort. The excitement of the battle was still in his +blood, its noises ringing in his head, its sights dancing like +will-o'-the-wisps before his eyes. Later, the inevitable reaction would +follow, and the inevitable weariness. Now, refreshed by their +supper, both he and the broncho had come to their second wind, and +they faced the storm pluckily and with unbowed heads. Beside him, +The Nig, fresh and fit as a horse could be, galloped onward steadily +under the weight of Kruger Bobs. It had been at Weldon's own command +that Kruger Bobs had abandoned his raw-boned steed and placed +himself astride the sacred body of the thoroughbred Nig. On such a +night and after such a battle, a horse abandoned was a horse forever +lost. Neither The Nig nor Piggie could be left to any chance +ownership, but neither could Piggie, fresh from a two-day fight, be +left to the mercies of an inexperienced rider. Three inches shorter +than his master, Kruger Bobs weighed fifty pounds the more, and he +rode with the resilient lightness of a feather bed. + +Weldon's hour of rest had been divided in strict ratio between +himself, his friend and his horse. For fully half that period, he +and Kruger Bobs had rubbed the sturdy gray legs and anointed the +scratched neck with supplies taken from the portable veterinary +hospital always to be found in the recesses of the Kaffirs scanty +garments. Then, snatching a hasty meal, with the last of it still in +his hands, Weldon strode away to look for Carew. He found him, +bandaged but jovial, a shattered bone in his foot and his pipe in +his shut teeth. Fortunately the pain bore no relation to the +seriousness of the case, and Weldon left him to his pipe, cheered by +the doctor's assurance that two or three weeks would bring him back +into fighting trim. Carew's own disrespectful comments on the +injured foot were still in his ears, as he entered the tent of the +General. + +By degrees, the night grew dark and darker. Riding eastward with +their backs to the southerly storm, nevertheless now and again the +wind swirled about fiercely, to send the lashing rain against their +faces. Under their feet, the dusty veldt turned to mire, from mire +to a pasty glue, and from glue to the consistency of cream. Bottom +there was none; the bottomlessness of it only became more apparent +when one or other of the horses stumbled into the hole of an +ant-bear. Twice the gray broncho was on her knees; once The Nig came +down so sharply that Kruger Bobs rolled forward out of his saddle, +to land on his back, nose to nose with his astonished mount. Worst +of all, the fever of the fight was dying out from Weldon's veins. +His pulses were slowing down, and the ceaseless jar of the gray +broncho's gallop waked his wounded leg to a pain which fast became +intolerable. + +Kruger Bobs edged closer to his side. + +"Boss sick?" he asked. + +"Not altogether content, Kruger Bobs." + +"Leg?" the boy questioned anxiously. + +"Yes; that--and some other things." + +"Me help Boss?" + +"No, thank you. I'd better let the mess alone." + +"Boss ride Nig?" Kruger Bobs suggested, in the hushed tone in which +all their talk had been carried on. + +"It is better not to change." + +The silence broadened, broken only by the splashing of eight hoofs +in the ever-deepening mire, and by the sighing squeak of wet strap +rubbing on wet strap. Then Kruger Bobs spoke again. + +"Paddy send," he said, as he poked a soft parcel into Weldon's +dangling hand. "He say 'Give it to little Canuck.'" + +Weldon felt and tasted his way into the parcel. It was large, and +filled with savory bits which Paddy must have gleaned here and there +from the general mess, robbing freely from many a greater man, all +for the sake of the "little Canuck." + +It was no time for the discipline which bids a servant eat of the +crumbs from his master's table. For the hour, Kruger Bobs and he +were friends, bound upon one and the same errand. With impartial +hand, Weldon tore the paper across and divided its contents. He only +regretted that convention had forbidden him the trick of smacking +his lips in sign of relish. It would have been good to have the +ability of Kruger Bobs to give audible token of his appreciation of +Paddy's bounty. + +Somewhat refreshed, he straightened in his saddle. + +"Now be careful, Kruger Bobs. There are Boers in these hills," he +warned his companion; "and it would never do for us to be sniped." + +Kruger Bobs came close to his side. + +"Dutchmans kill Kruger Bobs, no matter; kill Boss, no take despatch. +Boss say to Kruger Bobs where de despatch. Kruger Bobs take him to +Krugersdorp, if Boss die." + +And Weldon shivered a little, as the silence dropped again. + +The ridges were steeper now, and came in more swift succession, as +the horsemen plodded wearily along the southern slope of the Rand. +Piggie was breathing heavily; and Weldon, clinging to his saddle +with the purely mechanical grip of the exhausted rider, halted again +and again to rest the plucky little animal whose best was always his +for the asking. Of his own condition he took no heed. It was all in +the game. He would play the game out as long as he could; but his +last move should be, as his first had been, strictly according to +rule. Meanwhile, for two facts he was at a loss to account. Dawning +was still hours distant. Nevertheless, the darkness before him was +blotted and blurred with alternating waves of blue and gray. The +veldt was empty; yet, above the roar of the rain around him, an odd +purring sound was in his ears. Then everything lost itself in his +determination not to allow the saddle to slip from between his tired +knees. + +He roused himself at the challenging voice of a picket. + +"Despatches for General Kekewich," he answered, in a voice which +seemed to his own ears to have come from miles away. + +"Advance and give the countersign." + +Irritably he gathered himself together. + +"I can't, I tell you. I don't know your blasted countersign. I've +despatches from Dixon to General Kekewich. Take me to him at once." + +The colloquy lasted for moments, in a drawn battle of determination. +Its stimulus had waked Weldon from his lethargy; it had also waked +again that fierce and throbbing pain below his knee. He left the +sentry in no doubt, either of the truth of his statement, or of his +mood. Then, with Kruger Bobs at his side, he plodded forward towards +the lights of the town, while he braced himself for a final effort. + +Fifteen minutes later, he reached the second line of pickets. The +gray broncho's head drooped pitifully, as Weldon sat waiting for the +inevitable challenge. It came at last; and Weldon's answering voice +was slow with a weakness which was not all feigned. + +"Despatches from Dixon's column. Take me to the Commandant, please." + +He was dimly aware of a hand on his bridle, dimly conscious that +Piggie was being led forward for a seemingly endless distance. As +they halted in front of a gray stone building, Weldon dimly heard +the tingling of many bells within, then the hurried opening of a +window, and a voice demanding the cause of the disturbance below. He +felt himself going fast; but, gripping his will with all his might, +he pulled himself together long enough to answer,-- + +"Despatches for General Kekewich between the soles of my left boot." + +Then he pitched forward on his broncho's neck. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +"Twelve inches make one foot, six feet make one man, sixty men make +one troop, four troops make one squadron," the monotonous voice ran +on. Then it came to an unexpected finale. "And three squadrons make +the Boer army run." + +The man in the next bed giggled. His wound was in his shoulder, and +it had left his sense of humor unimpaired. As a rule, the fighting +records of the wounded never came inside that long, bed-bordered +room; but there were few within it now who were ignorant of the +plucky ride made by the lean, boyish-looking Canadian trooper. A +part of the story had come by way of the doctor in charge of the +ambulance train which had brought him from Krugersdorp to +Johannesburg, a part of it had come from the trooper's own lips, and +that was the most tragic part of it all. + +Below, in the courtyard of the hospital, Kruger Bobs squatted on his +heels in the sun and waited. Now and then, he vanished to look after +the creature comforts of The Nig and the little gray broncho; now +and then he shuffled forward to demand news from some passer-by +whose sleeve was banded with the Red-Cross badge. Then he shuffled +back to his former post and sat himself down on his heels once more. +Kruger Bobs possessed the racial traits which make it an easy matter +to sit and wait for news. He was also an optimist. Nevertheless, his +face now was overcast and rarely did it vanish behind the spreading +limits of his smile. + +For four days, Weldon lay prostrate and babbled of all things, past, +present and to come. Three names dotted his babblings. One was that +of his mother, one of his captain, and the third that of Ethel Dent. +With all three of them, he appeared to be upon the best of terms. +Finally, on the fifth day, he suddenly waked to the fact that a +woman was bending above him, to wipe his face with a damp sponge. + +He was too weak to rise. Nevertheless, he straightened himself into +a rigid line, and addressed her with dignity. + +"I beg your pardon. Please don't wash my face for me," he said, in +grave displeasure. + +She smiled down at him, with the air of a mother smiling at a +fretful child. The smile irritated him. + +"Doesn't it refresh you?" she asked quietly. + +"No," he answered, with flat, ungracious, mendacity. + +"I am sorry. You have been sleeping heavily, and--" + +He felt his mind slipping out of his own grasp, and he strove to +hold it in his keeping. + +"No matter now," he interrupted hastily. "Please get me--" + +She waited in silence. Then she asked encouragingly,-- + +"What shall I get you?" + +The mind was almost gone; but still he held fast to the edge of it, +as he murmured,-- + +"Some bully beef." + +The nurse turned away. Her lips were smiling; but her eyes clouded, +as the babbling began once more. + +Twenty-four hours later, she was greeted by a white-faced, +clear-headed trooper. + +"Good-morning, nurse," he said coolly. "You see I am better." + +"Much better, Mr. Weldon," she assented cordially. He looked +puzzled. "I thought we fellows in hospital had no names, nothing but +numbers," he answered. + +"It depends. When one meets an old friend, the number isn't quite +the right name for him." + +Turning slightly, he stared up at her with the impassive curiosity +of a man just coming back from The Unknown. Then he shook his head. + +"I am afraid--" he began slowly. + +With a quick gesture, she took off her crisp white cap, uncovering a +heavy pile of ink-black hair. "There!" she said, with a smile. "Does +that make me look more natural, Mr. Weldon? I am Alice Mellen, Cooee +Dent's cousin." + +Instantly he put out his hand, sunburned still, but curiously thin. +The smile on his lips was the boyish, frank smile which Alice had +seen and liked, that afternoon in the garden at home. + +"What good angel brings you here?" he asked eagerly. + +"No angel; merely the lady who rules over the household of Mars. I +am glad to find you again, even if the Johannesburg hospital isn't a +good place for a man. But you mustn't talk now. Later, we can make +up for lost time." + +Impetuously his fingers shut on a fold of her apron. Then his native +instincts and his years of training asserted themselves, and he let +go once more. Nevertheless, his eyes were appealing. + +"Don't go." + +"But I must," she answered, her hands busy with her cap. + +Her tone showed that, like himself, she too had learned the meaning +of an order. He yielded to its quiet firmness. + +"If you must. But, before you go, tell me this: have I been off my +head?" + +She nodded in assent. + +He frowned. + +"Sorry," he said briefly. "Please answer me honestly. Have I mumbled +things and made a blasted fool of myself?" + +It was still two days before he was allowed to talk to his own +satisfaction. Then, one afternoon in her rest hour, Alice Mellen let +him have his way and, seated by his cot, she answered tersely to a +raking fire of terse questions. + +"How long have I been here?" + +"Just a week." + +"How did I get here?" + +"Hospital train from Krugersdorp." + +"What for?" + +"You had a touch of fever. We could treat you better here." Her +replies were man-like in their brevity. + +"Fever? I thought it was a Mauser bullet." + +"It was. Your leg was not so bad; but the long ride and the exposure +to the storm--" + +He interrupted her. + +"What do you know about my ride?" he asked. + +Her answer showed that the woman was not lost in the nurse. + +"Everybody knows of your ride. Even in these days of plucky deeds, +we are proud of you." + +He shook his head, though the color came into his cheeks, brown +beneath their pallor. + +"It was nothing. I did my duty." + +"So Kruger Bobs has informed us." + +"Kruger Bobs? Is he here?" + +This time, she laughed outright. + +"I should say he was. For a week, he has been sitting exactly in the +path of the doctors, waiting for news. Twice he has been ordered +off; but he merely hitches over to the other end of the steps and +refuses to budge farther. We discovered him, the first night you +were here, by having the bead surgeon fall headlong over him, as he +went down the steps. Kruger Bobs doesn't show up well, on a dark +night." + +Weldon clasped his hands at the back of his head. + +"If I thought you were using American slang, Miss Mellen, I should +contradict you," he answered, with a touch of his old humor. "I can +remember at least one dark night when Kruger Bobs made an excellent +showing." + +She nodded. + +"We have bad a few Americans here before, Mr. Weldon. I think I +understand." + +"How long have you been here?" he asked, after a pause. + +"Ten weeks." + +"And you like it?" + +"Why else should I be here?" + +"From a sense of duty." + +"Is that what brought you out?" + +"No. My coming was inevitable. It seemed a part of me that I +couldn't help." + +"But you wished to come?" she queried. + +"Of course. But that was only a Dart of it. I have wished to do +things before, and have done them. This was quite different. It all +seemed a part of Fate, and I walked through it, like a puppet with +somebody else's hand pulling the strings." He paused and shook his +head. "It is no use. I can't make you understand it. I acted freely +and did just what I chose; but yet, all the time, I felt as if it +had all been arranged for me, whole generations ago." + +Thoughtfully she bent forward, straightened the coverings above his +wounded leg; then sat up again. Then she shook her head a little +regretfully. + +"No," she said. "I am afraid I don't understand. Perhaps it is +because I am selfish; but I usually feel as if I made my plans, +regardless of Fate." + +"What about our meeting here?" he asked quizzically. + +She answered in the same tone. + +"Wait until we see what comes out of it. Fate, if one believes in +such a thing, only works in an endless chain." + +"And the broken links?" + +"According to your notion, there should be none," she retorted. +"Fate ought to be a better workman than that." + +"Than what?" + +"Than spoiling her work as she goes along. If there's any chain at +all, it should be endless and durable. But a man with a Mauser hole +in his leg and a fever in his head has no business to be talking of +Fate. Let's talk about Ethel, instead." + +He settled himself back comfortably. + +"Perhaps it amounts to the same thing, in the long run." + +"Perhaps. I don't see how, though. Anyway, Ethel wouldn't be pleased +with the notion. She is absolutely independent, and generally +arranges things according to her own sweet will." + +"Where is she now?" + +"In Cape Town," Alice answered, quite unaware of her own lack of +truth. + +"And well?" + +"Gloriously. In fact, as far as I can learn, Cooee always is well. +Just now she is having a wonderfully gay time. Since Lord Roberts +went back to England, Cape Town has been full of people, resting +there before sailing for home." + +"Resting?" + +"Haven't they earned the right?" she questioned, in swift challenge +to the quiet scorn in his tone. + +"Even if the battles are over, the fighting isn't," he answered +tersely. "The glory doesn't lie entirely in the pulverizing the Boer +army; there's a little left for the men who are sweeping up the +pieces." + +Her trained eye saw the rising color in his face. Swiftly she +changed the subject. + +"Glory for all, enough and to spare," she replied. "But, as I say, +Cape Town is crowded with officers, lying up for repairs, and Ethel +is queen bee among them. It's not only for herself; it is what you +would call Fate. She happens to be the only girl of her set who is +just out from London; she had met a good many of them there, and now +she is holding a veritable salon. She even has one sacred teacup, +set up on a high shelf ever since the day that Baden-Powell used +it." + +Weldon smiled. + +"Miss Dent is a hero-worshipper," he commented. + +"So are we all, in certain directions. Moreover, most women like +their heroes to have a little personality. One can't make one's +admiration stick to a blank wall of impersonal perfection." + +Weldon's mind moved swiftly backwards to two blue, black-fringed +eyes glowing out from a dust-streaked face. + +"No," he assented; "but neither can one ever really be chums with +his hero. Or, even if he can, he doesn't care to try the +experiment." + +Alice glanced at her watch, rose, then lingered. + +"I am not so sure of that," she replied thoughtfully. "I want the +pedestal of my hero to be a low one; and Cooee declares that she +wishes no pedestal at all. If her hero is worthy of the name, he +must bear inspection even from above. The worst flaw of all might +lurk in the very crown of his head." + +Half an hour later, she came back again. + +"Mr. Weldon, do you feel strong enough to see Kruger Bobs for +exactly five minutes?" she asked. + +The gray eyes lighted. + +"For ten times five," he answered eagerly. + +Kruger Bobs shuffled in upon the heels of an orderly. Under his +bristly hair, his face was a study of mingled emotions which +culminated in his mouth. A grin of pure happiness had drawn up the +upper lip; at sight of his prostrate master, the lower one was +rolling outward in a sudden wave of pure pity. Beside the cot, he +halted and stood looking down at Weldon with eyes which, for the +moment, transformed his lazy, jolly, simian face into a species of +nobility. Lying back on his pillow, Weldon waited for him to speak, +waited with an odd, restless beating of the heart for which he was +wholly at a loss to account. + +The pause between them lengthened. At last Kruger Bobs drew his +mangy brown felt hat across his eyes. + +"I's here, Boss," he said simply. + +However, it was enough. + +The next morning found Weldon sitting up. A clean-cut hole through +the flesh of a man who has lived a clean-cut life is swift in +healing. Now that his fever had left him, his superb vitality was +asserting itself once more, and he rallied quickly. Meanwhile, it +was good to be able to sit up and eat his breakfast like a civilized +being. Weldon had all the detestation of the average healthy being +for invalid ways. Moreover, he longed to be up and doing. With his +growing strength, the orderly, noiseless routine of the hospital +came upon his nerves. One of the nurses always walked on the points +of her toes; and he was conscious of a wild longing to throw a +pillow at her, as she went diddling to and fro past him, a dozen +times a day. The doctor, a man of iron nerve and velvet hand, was a +daily delight to him. And there was always Alice, frank, friendly +and altogether enjoyable. During the past three days, their liking +had grown apace. Absolutely feminine, yet with the healthy +impersonality of a growing boy, Alice Mellen was a born comrade, and +Weldon enjoyed her just as, in her place, he would have enjoyed +Carew. + +She came down the ward, that morning, and paused beside his chair. + +"You look like your old self at last," she said, as she held out her +hand in congratulation. + +"I might echo your words," he answered, while he looked up into her +eyes, shining with merriment and with something that yet seemed to +him closely akin to annoyance. "Granted the apron, you might be +pouring tea at home." + +"Not tea; but malted milk, in these latter days," she said, +laughing. "But I am about to retire from your case. May I introduce +your new nurse, Mr. Weldon?" + +His reluctant assent was changed to eager greeting. Light, swift +steps came down the room; a tall figure stopped at his side in the +full glare of a sunshiny window which all at once seemed focussing +its light upon waving strands and heaped-up coils of vivid yellow +hair. + +"Cooee!" Then, too late, he bethought himself of his manners and +tried to bite the word off short. + +Linking her arm in that of her cousin, the girl stood looking down +at him with merry, mocking blue eyes. + +"Invalids are supposed to have privileges denied to well men," she +answered demurely. "It might perhaps be Cooee here, to-day; but it +will have to be Miss Dent, to-morrow, when you are back in the field +again. After all, it is hardly worth while to make the change, +Trooper Weldon." + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +Upon one side, at least, the meeting between the two cousins on the +previous night had been wholly unexpected. + +Late that afternoon, an ambulance train had come in, loaded with men +from the over-crowded field hospital at Krugersdorp, and for hours +Alice had been in ceaseless attendance upon the surgeon in charge. +Little by little, the girl had found her nerves steadying down to +the task in hand; nevertheless, the past ten weeks, in return for +the increase of her poise, had taken something from her vitality. +Quickness of eye, firmness of hand, evenness of temper: all these +may be gifts of the gods. Their use is a purely human function, and +proportionately exhausting. The girl's one salvation lay in the fact +that her quick sympathy with her patients was for the most part +impersonal. Up to this time, Weldon had been her only patient whom +she had known outside the routine duties of her hospital life. In a +sense, it had been a relief to meet some one whom she knew to be of +her own world; in a sense, the case had worn upon her acutely. She +could watch with a greater degree of stolidity the sufferings of +other men. + +Among her new charges, that day, only one had made any distinct +impression upon her overworked brain. That was a jovial young +fellow, handsome as Phoebus Apollo, in spite of a slashing scar +across one cheek. He had answered to her questions regarding his +wounded foot with an accent so like that of Weldon that +involuntarily she lingered beside him to add a word of cheery +consolation. His was her final case, that night. As she wearily +turned towards her own room, she made no effort to analyze her +exhaustion. + +She found Ethel, still in her hat and jacket, sitting on the edge of +her own narrow cot. + +"Cooee Dent!" + +"Yes, dear." The girl's tone was nonchalant, even while the telltale +color came into her cheeks. + +"What are you doing here?" + +"Visiting you, of course." + +"Visiting me! But, Cooee, I really don't know where I can put you." + +With perfect composure, Ethel passed her hand over the surface of +the cot. + +"Oh, I think this nutmeg-grater will carry two. Still, Alice, I must +say that your hospitality isn't exactly exuberant." + +Alice dropped into a chair and wearily pushed her hair still farther +back from her forehead. + +"But, Cooee--" + +"Aren't you glad to see me?" Ethel demanded. + +"Certainly. You are always a dear; but--I wish I had known you were +coming." + +Ethel raised her brows, and a slight edge came into her voice. + +"If you don't want me, Alice, I can go home in the morning." + +Dimly aware that her cousin was fencing with an invisible adversary, +nevertheless Alice Mellen was too tired, that night, to range +herself upon the side of that adversary. As far as she was +concerned, Ethel had dropped upon her like a bolt from the blue. She +was too busy, too absorbed in her patients to give more than a +passing thought to even her most intimate cousin. And besides, +Weldon--She pulled herself together sharply. + +"Of course I want you, Cooee dear. It is only a bit sudden, and I am +trying to think what to do with you." + +Now and then Ethel turned wayward. This was one of the times. + +"If you didn't know what to do with me, Alice, then why did you ask +me to come?" + +"But I didn't," Alice responded, too astonished to modify her denial +into a polite form of fibbing. + +Ethers tone was gently superior. + +"Oh, yes; you did." + +"When?" + +"When you were leaving home. You said then that I must be sure to +come up to spend a week with you, early in the winter." Then her +accent changed. "You poor tired child!" she said, as she rose and +crossed to her cousin's side. "This work is too hard for you; you +look as if you had been fighting the Boers themselves, instead of +merely enteric and bullet holes. I think it is just as well that I +am here to look out for you, for a few days." + +Alice lifted her hand to the hand that lay against her cheek. + +"I am glad to see you, Cooee dear. I am only so surprised that it +makes me slow to tell you so. If you can sleep here, to-night, I can +find a better place for you in the morning." + +"This will do," Ethel answered, while she slowly drew the pins from +her hat. "It is neat, even if it isn't spacious. Really, Alice, I +should have let you know; but it was only just as I was starting +that I found I could come at all. Father is at home, and mother is +unusually well, and I thought I would best make the most of the +opportunity." + +Crossing the room to the table, she stood with her back to her +cousin, while she smoothed the feathers in her hat. Then, without +turning, she asked abruptly,-- + +"How is Mr. Weldon?" + +"Better." + +"Out of all danger?" + +"Yes. Not that he has been in much danger, anyway." + +"Oh, I thought--" + +Then silence fell. + +Alice, meanwhile, was busy with a swift calculation. Five days, in +these troubled times, for a letter to go from Johannesburg to Cape +Town; five days since Ethel could have left Cape Town. And her one +letter to Ethel since Weldon's arrival had been posted just three +days before. + +"How did you know Mr. Weldon was here?" she asked sharply. + +Ethel's back was still turned towards her. Nevertheless, she could +see the scarlet tide mounting to the ears and to the roots of the +vivid gold hair. + +"Why, your letter, Alice," Ethel answered composedly. + +Alice's laugh was sharp and edged with malice. + +"Yes, dear. My letter, telling you of his being here, will be +delivered at your house to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, then I must have mixed things up," Ethel replied, as she turned +to face her cousin. "Probably Captain Frazer told me." + +"Captain Frazer?" + +"Yes, he came down to Cape Town, just before I left there. I +remember now, he was the one who told me. He was near Mr. Weldon at +Vlaakfontein; he knew all about his awful ride into Krugersdorp, and +I believe he did say he was to be brought here." + +For a moment more, the two pairs of eyes, the blue and the black, +met in steady warfare, neither one yielding in the least, neither +one quite aware how much she was betraying to the other. + +"Well, what of it?" Ethel demanded tempestuously then. + +"Nothing, only--are you sure you were wise to come?" + +The blue eyes blazed. + +"And what do you mean by that, Alice? You asked me to visit you +here, to see your work among your patients. I have come. If I came +at all, it had to be now. I can't always leave home for a week at a +time. And I can't help it, can I, if Mr. Weldon happens to be one of +your patients?" + +"No; you can't," Alice admitted slowly. "It only remains to be seen +whether you would care to help it, if you could." + +Again Ethel crossed the room. This time, she dropped down at her +cousin's side. + +"Don't let us argue about it and get cross at each other, dear. If I +have made a mistake in coming now, I am sorry. But I am here. Let me +stay a few days; I may be able to help you a little. Anyway, I +promise not to be a trouble to you. It is so long since I have seen +you, Alice. And--" Again the silence dropped. + +Alice roused herself from the reverie which was creeping over her. +She was glad to see Ethel, unfeignedly glad. The bright, animated +presence of her cousin, during the next few days, could not fail to +be a tonic. And, as Ethel had said, she herself had been the one to +suggest the first idea of the winter visit. Chance and Captain +Frazer had decreed that it should take place now, when Alice's hands +were immoderately full of work. But then, so much the better. Ethel +could make herself invaluable among the convalescents. She herself +had not put on her Red-Cross badge for the sake of taking her rest +hour at the bedside of Trooper Harvard Weldon. + +Half undressed, Ethel paused, hair brush in hand. "You can't imagine +how tired I am, Alice. It is a terrible journey up here nowadays. I +was in terror of a train-wreck at any moment," she said drowsily. +"Don't let me sleep too long in the morning, because," she pulled +open her eyes long enough to dart a mocking glance over her shoulder +at her cousin; "because you know, right after breakfast, you are +going to let me begin to help you take care of some of your people." + +From behind her own sheltering veil of ink-black hair, Alice +laughed. + +"Cooee, you are a dear; but you're rather a trial," she said slowly. +"However, now that you are here, I think I shall ask the P. M. O. to +set you to work to watch over the needs of Mr. Weldon. He won't be +here much longer; but, while he stays, I shall consider him your +patient." Then, brushing aside the veil, she bent forward and +touched her lips to her cousin's cheek. + +"Might I ask what brought you up here, Miss Dent?" Weldon asked, the +next day. + +Beside him sat Ethel, her hands demurely clasped in the lap of her +broad white apron. + +"My cousin's invitation," she replied. + +"Then Miss Mellen knew you were coming?" + +"Yes. She asked me to come, early in the winter." + +"Strange she said nothing about it! We were talking about you, only +yesterday." + +"She didn't know, even then, that I was so imminent," Ethel +answered. "I took her quite by surprise, at the last." + +"A surprise all around, then," he said, with a boyish laugh. "I was +astonished to find Miss Mellen here, and you must have been equally +astonished to find me. If only Captain Frazer would appear, our old +quartette would be complete." + +"I am afraid we must get on without him," she said lightly. + +"Unfortunately, yes. I wonder where he is." + +"In Cape Town," she replied unexpectedly. + +"Really? What is he doing there?" + +"Don't expect me to tell. It has something to do with a staff; but +whether he carries it, or becudgels recruits with it, I have no idea +at all." + +"He hasn't left the Scottish Horse?" + +"In fact; but not in name. Your regiment is still in the Transvaal; +but he keeps a sort of vicarious connection with it. Please don't +expect me to grasp military details, Mr. Weldon. I merely repeat the +facts, parrot fashion; you must interpret them to suit yourself." + +He laughed again. Already, in that one morning, he appeared to have +taken a long stride towards the regaining of his old self. + +"You are a perfect gazette, Miss Dent, the first bit of news that +has crept inside this place. Where did you get all your +information?" + +"From Captain Frazer." Her rising color belied her unconcerned tone. + +"You have seen him, then?" + +"Yes. He is usually very good about calling, whenever he comes to +Cape Town." + +"And is he well?" + +"Absolutely. Also quite enthusiastic over his troopers and the work +they did at Vlaakfontein." + +"Were--many--" + +She understood. + +"Not very many; but several were wounded. Worst of all, one or two +of the wounded ones were shot by the Boers. Mr. Carew told me that +he left a dozen of your men in the hospital at Krugersdorp." + +"Carew? Have you seen him, too, Miss Dent?" + +"Didn't you know he was here?" + +He stared at her in blank amazement. + +"Here in Johannesburg?" + +"Here in this hospital." + +"In what shape?" + +"Hilarious in his mind, and with a foot that is coming out right in +course of time. Didn't Alice tell you?" + +"No." + +"Strange. She took me to see him, this morning, on my way here, +because he was such a promising patient. She was quite surprised to +find we were old acquaintances." + +"Oh," Weldon said slowly. "I begin to see. Miss Mellen had never met +Carew, so she had no idea we were friends. What a curious snarl it +all is!" + +"The hand of Fate is in it," Ethel assented idly. + +"Do you believe in Fate, too?" + +"Surely. Why not?" + +"Nothing, only your cousin said you didn't." + +The girl frowned. + +"Alice doesn't know all my mental processes," she said a little +severely. + +"She didn't pretend to. We were speaking of Fate, yesterday, of the +way certain events in one's life seem absolutely inevitable; at +least, I was. Then the conversation worked around to you, and Miss +Mellen suggested that you usually rose superior to Fate," Weldon +explained at some length. + +Once again, Ethel felt the note of finality in his tone. For an +instant, she shut her lips. Then she reverted to the main question. + +"How do you mean inevitable?" + +"As if you chose your path, and then found that, for always, it had +been the only thing for you to do. That's not so clear, I know; but +I can't put it much better." + +"For instance?" + +"For instance, my coming out here when I did. I was interested in +the war; but there was no real question of my coming, until the +month I sailed. Then, all of a sudden, I seemed to know why it was +that I had spent my life on horseback. They told me in England that +the real war was over. When I landed at Cape Town, I found out that +the one thing needed was a man who could ride, and shoot straight. +From the day I sailed from home, until now, I have been like an +actor walking through a part that some one else has written for him. +I have chosen nothing; it all has been inevitable." + +She rose to her feet, and stood leaning on the back of her chair. + +"In that case, Mr. Weldon, you must include our meeting in your +scheme of things," she said, with a smile. + +His answering smile met her smile with perfect frankness. + +"I sometimes wonder if that wasn't the most inevitable part of it +all." + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +The red-brown veldt stretched away to the sky-line, sixty miles +distant. Level as it looked, it was nevertheless a succession of +softly rolling ridges dotted with clumps of dried sagebrush and +spotted here and there with heaps of black volcanic rocks. Far to +the northward, a thin line of poplars and willows marked the bed of +a river. Beyond that, again, the air was thick with smoke from acres +of burning veldt. The days were full of dust, and the nights were +full of frost; it was the month of June, and winter was upon the +land. + +The camp was taking a well-earned rest. For days, the men had swept +over the veldt, following hard on the trail of a Boer general who +only made himself visible now and then by a spatter of bullets, when +his convoy train was delayed at a difficult ford. It had been a week +of playing pussin-the-corner over a charred and dusty land, where +the only roads were trails trodden out to powder by the hoofs of +those that had gone before. Both men and mounts were wellnigh +exhausted, and the officers had decreed a halt. + +The strain had been intense. Now, with the relaxing of it, its +memory vanished, and the halt swiftly took upon itself the +appearance of a school holiday. Laughing and chaffing each other, +groups of men loitered here and lounged there, smoking, writing +letters, and taking stout, unlovely stitches in their time-worn +khaki clothing. At one side of the camp was the tent of the mess +sergeant, equipped like a portable species of corner grocery. Near +by, Paddy apparently was in his element, presiding over his +camp-kitchen, a vast bonfire encircled with a dozen iron pots. At the +farther edge of the camp Weldon was umpiring a game of football +between his own squadron and a company of the Derbys. Owing to the +athletic zeal of the hour, it was big-side, and Weldon was too busy +in keeping his eye upon so many players to pay much attention to his +own loneliness. + +In all truth, however, he was lonely. The week since he had rejoined +his squadron had dragged perceptibly. Captain Frazer was in Cape +Town; Carew was still in hospital at Johannesburg where, under the +eyes of Alice Mellen and her cousin, he was fast resuming his old +finical habits. Dingy and veldt-stained though he might be, Carew at +heart would always remain the exquisite. However, exquisite that he +was bound to be, he was even more the soldier, and his gay eyes had +clouded, as he had wrung Weldon's hand in parting. + +"Lucky dog!" he said enviously. "I am off duty for two weeks more, +and you are going back to the thick of things. One must take it as +it comes; but I say, old man, don't forget me when the bullets begin +to pelt at you again." + +And Weldon had been better than his promise. He had thought of +Carew, day and night, for the entire week, thought of him and missed +him acutely. Carew was an ideal comrade in that he never, under any +circumstances, took himself in earnest. + +A leg which will carry a man on horseback is by no means fit for +football. Weldon, finished player that he was, found it tame work to +umpire a team whose sole idea of tactics was to get there in any way +that offered itself. Half an hour sufficed; then, appointing an +understudy, he walked away in search of Paddy. From the midst of a +torrent of instructions to his quartette of black subordinates, +Paddy's voice sang out a cheery greeting. + +"Come along, little feller! Come and get something to eat. It's +hungry you ought to be, the day, after the way you've been walking +all over the country on horseback and an empty stomach. Try this, as +a sample of your dinner, and sit down by the edge of the fire, +whilst, and tell me how it tastes." + +The iron spoon scraped lustily over the iron dixey. Then Weldon +returned them both with a low bow. + +"Like yourself, Paddy, short and sweet." + +Paddy brandished the spoon, weapon-wise. + +"Short is it, you little Canuck! So is a pepperpot short; but it +holds a hell of a flavor. Leave Paddy a gun in his hand, and his +short legs will keep up with your long ones, when it's the firing +line that's before him." + +"The old sing-song, Paddy. Give us something new." + +"So will I, when I get my wishing. Till then, you'll hear it over +and over again. A man of my temper, little one, will never rest +content at a firing line that's all surrounded about with ten-quart +pots of boiling beef." + +"Why don't you resign, then?" + +"Resigned! How can I be resigned? I'm a chunk of dynamite in a +suet-pot, hard to manage and ready to go off at any time that something +strikes me. Meantime, I am like what they say is dirt: matter out of +place." + +"Then why don't you get out?" Weldon queried. + +"I am out of place now, I'm telling you," Paddy returned, as he +pensively rested his cheek upon the bowl of the spoon in his hand. + +"Yes; but why not refuse to stay here as cook?" + +Sorrowfully Paddy shook his head, spoon and all. + +"That's what I did do, little one." + +"And what happened?" + +"This." The spoon came into evidence once more. "They blarneyed me +up and they blarneyed me down, and they said nobody could cook like +Paddy. Anybody could shoot a baker's dozen of Boers; but only one +man in the camp could fill up the boys to give them a fit and level +stomach for the battle. And here I am, and here I'm like to be, till +the new moon in the heavens turns to a curly strip of bully beef. If +I'd known the Captain was about to escape to Cape Town, it's Paddy +that would have escaped with him, hanging on to the tail of his +coat. Saint Patrick's vipers! What's that?" + +A hum, a spat, and a little spurt of red dust rolled lazily upward. +Then another hum followed. There was a scurry of men, a squeak of +leather, the light clashing of rifles snatched from the stack; and +the troops were off. + +Beside them, the nearer hills rose in brick-red patches against the +sky. Farther away, the brick color changed to gray and, still +beyond, to misty purple. Before them rolled the open, khaki-colored +veldt dotted in one direction by a ragged spot of black that flowed +over the crest of each ridge and vanished from sight for a moment +before rising from the hollow to flow over the crest of the ridge +beyond. And towards the ragged spot of black there rushed onward, at +an ever-lessening distance, the khaki-colored streak of the foremost +rank of C Squadron, led for the moment by a little gray broncho +whose hoofs touched the ground only to spurn it backwards. + +The chase was long and hot; but the end was in sight. Directly +across the path of the quarry stretched a low line of willows +showing the course of the stream beneath, and, a few hundred feet +this side of the willows, scattered clumps of green marked as many +scattered dwellings. By the largest clump, the quarry halted and +turned to bay, and the pursuers, unable to check their speed, rode +down upon it and crashed through its ranks, regardless of the +pitiless fire, then, sweeping around on the arc of a mammoth +circle, took up their position in the shelter of a walled kraal, +only a few hundred yards away. Then for a moment they halted, face +to face and in absolute silence. + +Even after her mad race, the little gray broncho was breathing +deeply and easily; but Weldon could feel his own breath come short. +Banged in open order before him were a full half-hundred of the +enemy, bearded, black-coated, bandoliered, grim and stolid and ripe +of years. Beside him were the new captain of the troop and seven +men. They were and alert; but there were only nine of them in all. +And the rest of the troop, it seemed to him, were half the veldt-length +away. Vaguely he wondered whether their distant khaki coats +would look as purple as did the distant khaki-colored hills. Then, +quite inconsequently, as he raised his rifle, he noticed that one of +the Boers had a button hanging loosely on its threads from the front +of his coat. He was rather surprised, the next instant, to see the +Boer pitch forward headlong in the dust. It was some time afterward +that he thought to connect the falling with the crack of his own +rifle. + +Piggie bounded sidewise, as the mount of the trooper next Weldon +dropped and lay whimpering like a hurt child. Then she steadied to +the touch of Weldon's hand upon her neck. It was not the first time +he had guided her, unscathed, through a leaden shower. She would +trust him yet once again. As he raised his rifle, her wiry legs were +as steady as four iron rods. He saw another Boer fall and yet +another and a third; but one khaki-colored figure lay stiffly beside +him, and another was dragging itself away to a corner of the kraal, +to give greater space to its unwounded comrades. And still the +bullets whizzed about them, thick and ever thicker. + +Piggie shied again. This time a bullet had grazed her neck, and the +sight of the narrow sear filled Weldon's mind with a dull, +unreasoning rage. Brutal to aim at the plucky mounts who bore their +riders so gallantly into the flight where all defensive power was +denied themselves! He paused long enough to pat the firm gray neck, +to feel the answering pressure against his hand. Then he raised his +rifle again and took careful aim, as he breathed a wordless prayer +that chance might guide his bullet into the man who had scarred his +faithful friend. Another Boer dropped; Weldon hoped it was by his +own bullet. Then both he and the gray broncho pricked up their ears +as, close on their flank, they heard the beating of galloping hoofs. + +In the shock of the scrimmage that followed, there was scant time to +take thought of friend or of foe. On the heels of his new captain +as, of old, he had been on the heels of Captain Frazer, Weldon and +the gray broncho were in the thick of the fight. Then, as the Boers +sullenly fell backwards, Weldon became aware of a familiar voice in +his ears. + +"Whisht, little feller! It's Paddy," the voice said in a spooky +undertone, as its owner ranged up alongside the gray broncho. + +"Paddy!" Weldon stared at him in unfeigned astonishment. "What in +the name of heaven are you doing here, man?" + +With perfect composure Paddy squared himself in the saddle. + +"Little Canuck dear, as I told you before, heaven is a state of +eternal peace, and therefore an undesirable abode in these hot +times. I prefer a whiff of brimstone, myself; and, by the powers, +I've been getting, it." As he spoke, he took off his hat and showed +a neat trio of holes in the left brim. + +"But how did you come here, Paddy?" Weldon asked again. + +"Took your advice to heart, my jewel, kicked over my pan of fat and +jumped into the fire. Which, being put into straight English, I +swiped a horse and rode off with the rest of the boys on the tail of +the serpent." Weldon gasped, as he realized the enormity of the +crime. Then he laughed. In his haste to gain possession of a mount, +Paddy had taken no thought for his armament. His sole weapon was the +huge iron spoon, still grasped in his left hand. + +"Whose horse did you take, Paddy?" + +"I d'know. I never looked to see. I popped my toe into the stirrup +and came away, hot-foot; but," Paddy paused for a deliberate wink; +"as I was leaving camp, I thought I heard the voice of that pigeon-toed +little cockney Parrott, him that used to stub his toes on the +wall at Piquetberg Road, acalling out that some one had mislaid his +horse and he couldn't find it. I was sorry; but I was in a divil of +a haste and couldn't stop to condole with him then." + +"But, Paddy, they'll run you out of camp for this," Weldon +remonstrated dutifully. + +Paddy's shoulder mounted towards his left ear. "I'm thinking I have +run myself out, and that's just what I was meaning to do. I've been +a captain with four lieutenants under me. Any one of them can sling +the pepper and the salt, and they're welcome; but not one has the +fighting blood in his veins as I have. Let them mind their kettles +and leave me to mind the enemy." + +"And if they won't let you go back?" + +"Then I'll ship myself straight down to Cape Town, and take service +with Captain Frazer. He can fight with the best of them, and he +knows I'm a man. It's riding at his heels I'll be, henceforth and +forevermore." + +Turning, Weldon looked long into the jovial Irish face, and at the +hunchy figure that joggled to and fro in the saddle, with no heed to +the rhythm of his horse's pace. + +"Who taught you to ride, Paddy?" he asked at length. + +For an instant, a lump in Paddy's left cheek betrayed the +whereabouts of his tongue. Then quietly he made answer, "Sure, +little feller, it must have been the grace of Saint Patrick. Nobody +else has ever took a hand in the training of me. But I'll back him +against all the riding masters in London and Aldershot." + +And the result showed that Paddy's confidence was not misplaced. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +By midwinter, the war had become a series of guerrilla raids, of +sweeping drives and of occasional skirmishes. The epoch of the +infantry had passed, and it was the day of the mounted man. The +home-going of the great Field Marshal, six months before, had been +followed by the return to England of transports loaded with foot +soldiers. The hour, the country and the enemy all demanded the man +on the horse. With Lord Kitchener in the field and the colonies +aiding the mother country, the outcome was only a matter of time; +but few could as yet say when the fulness of that time should be at +hand. + +"But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my mind," Weldon said +thoughtfully. + +"How do you mean?" Ethel Dent threw the question at him a little +defiantly. + +"About going home." + +"Surely, you aren't going now?" + +He winced at the accent. + +"I am not sure. I volunteered for six months. My time is up; I paid +my official visit to the Citadel yesterday." + +"Are you needed at home?" + +"No. At least, not in any real sense." + +"But you are needed here." + +"There are enough without me, and the need will not last long." + +"Don't be too sure. On the Dunottar Castle, there were plenty of +people who laughed at you men for coming out to volunteer, after the +war was over. You have proved that they laughed at nothing. Prove it +again." + +Rising, he walked the length of the room and stood looking out from +the long front window. The bamboo screens and the willow chairs were +gone from their veranda corner; the flower-boxes were empty now, and +Table Bay gleamed coldly back at him in the late afternoon sun of +midwinter. Then he turned around to face the girl, seated where her +golden hair seemed to him to catch and hold all the light centering +about the gay little tea-table. + +"Don't," he said with some impatience. "Your arguments all echo my +own wish. I am pulled in two ways at once. At home, the mother is +growing restless. Since Vlaakfontein, she has lost her nerve, and +her heart is set on my meeting her in London in October." + +Deliberately Ethel made a neat triangle out of three unused spoons. + +"Well?" she said, without looking up. + +"Piggie and I have had a smell of powder," he answered briefly. "We +want more." + +"Well?" she said again. + +"The question is, are we likely to get it." + +"Not in England; not even in Cape Town," she answered, smiling at +the spoons before her. + +"Then where?" + +"Wherever the Boers are thickest." + +"Yes; but, after all, you are talking platitudes, Miss Dent," he +said, with recurring impatience. + +This time, she lifted her dark blue eyes to his face and allowed +them to rest there for a full minute. + +"But you forbade me to argue," she said demurely. + +He dropped down into a chair and faced her resolutely. + +"Now look here, Miss Dent, I can't talk shop in tea-table English. +In fact, shop has no place at a tea-table, anyway. Still, you were +the one to start it. Let's have it out. I don't want to funk, at +this late day. If there is any fighting to be done, I want a hand in +it. I went into a game of a certain length; I hope I played up, and +stuck to the professional rules. That game is played out. I am not +Trooper Weldon of the Scottish Horse. I am plain Harvard Weldon +again and, to be quite frank, I don't like the change from khaki to +tweed. But about going in for another game: it all depends on what +the game will be. If it plays itself out, well and good; if it just +dribbles on and on, without accomplishing anything, even an end, +then I can see no use in going in for it. Fighting is one thing; +having a picnic all over the face of South Africa is quite another +matter. And, for the life of me, I can't see which is bound to +come." + +There was a minor cadence to the final phrase. Then he fell silent, +and sat staring at the rug, while Ethel, leaning back in her chair, +studied him at her ease. All in all, she was pleased with the result +of her study. Always frank and likable, Weldon had developed +wonderfully during those past months of hard work and slender +comfort. Underneath his sunburn, his face had taken on new lines of +resolution. His eyes were as clear as ever; but their boyishness was +all in the past. It was a man who had come striding into the room, +that afternoon, and paused beside her tea-table. And Ethel, looking +up, had greeted him as she might have greeted Baden-Powell in his +place. + +To a great extent, Cape Town was resuming at least a semblance of +its oldtime social life. Heroes were more plentiful than is +altogether normal, however, and there was a dust-colored tint to +most assemblages. During the past months, the Dents' house had come +to be one of the focal points of society, and there were few men of +note who had failed to mount the wide white steps and pass between +the flanking pillars at the top, on their way to the drawing-room +beyond. Once there, they usually came again, immediately, if they +lingered in Cape Town; on their way back from the front, if no +quicker opportunity offered itself. Many a bullet-interrupted +conversation was resumed there; many a boy, just out from home, +confided his mingled homesickness and aspirations to dainty, +white-haired Mrs. Dent in her easy-chair; many a seasoned officer forgot +his ambitions and his disappointments and even his still sensitive +wounds in the gay talk of the golden-haired girl by the tray. As a +rule, Ethel talked shop with no man. She merely looked sympathetic, +and left him to do the talking, which he did unhesitatingly and +without reservation. From the first hour of their meeting, Weldon +had been the one exception. Even in the hospital at Johannesburg, +she had gone over with him in detail his experiences in camp and +field, and it had been Weldon by no means who had done all the +talking. + +To-day, as she had welcomed the tall Canadian in his irreproachable +frock-coat, she had known a sudden pang of regret. Undeniably, his +tailor was an artist. Nevertheless, she liked him better as she had +seen him last, in his stained khaki and his well-worn shoes, bending +over her hand in farewell, then taking The Nig's bridle from the +waiting Kruger Bobs, to leap into the tarnished saddle, lift his hat +and ride away out of sight. No one but Ethel herself had known that +it was not distance alone which had rendered him invisible to her. +And the next week in the hospital had dragged perceptibly. At the +end of that time, she had been quite ready to say good by to +Johannesburg and all that it contained. But, meanwhile, her smile +gave no clue to her memories, as she offered her hand to Weldon. + +"I knew you were here," she said cordially; "and I have any number +of things to talk over with you. There is no talking for me now, +though, with all these people on my hands. Can't you stay on and +dine with us? That will give us an hour to gossip comfortably, and +Captain Frazer is to be the only other guest. I asked him, on the +chance of your appearing. Oh, good afternoon, Colonel Douglas!" + +And Weldon found himself swept on out of her radius. + +He took refuge beside Mrs. Dent and, from that safe slack-water, he +made a thorough survey of the room. It was the first time he had +been present at one of the Dents' reception days, and he +acknowledged himself surprised at what he saw. Here and there an +acquaintance nodded to him; but, for the most part, he was a +stranger to the guests, save for the dozen whom he knew well by +sight and better still by reputation. Moreover, while he watched +her, he began to wonder whether he were not something of a stranger +to Ethel herself. This stately girl was not the comrade with whom he +had tramped the deck of the Dunottar Castle, nor yet the friend of +his early days in Cape Town, nor yet again the blithe companion of +his last tedious hours of convalescence. This girl was altogether +admirable; but a bit awe-inspiring withal. He watched the nonchalant +ease with which she provided a white-haired veteran of many +wars and many orders with a cup of steaming tea, and then sat and +chatted with him while he drank it. He felt himself a bashful boy, +as he watched her, and, like any other bashful boy, he fell to +talking to Mrs. Dent about his mother. + +Then the last visitor made a reluctant exit, and Ethel crossed the +room to his side. With the passing of the little throng of guests +her assured manners had passed, and she met him with the same +informal manner which had marked those last days at Johannesburg. + +"Now," she said, as she dropped down beside her mother's chair; "you +must tell me all about everything, Mr. Weldon. And, first of all, +are you quite strong again?" + +Question had followed question, eager, girlish and sincere, until +Weldon's answers had covered all the interval since they last had +met. At length, the delicate little mother had gone away to rest +before time for dinner. Weldon's strong arm had half-supported, +half-carried her up the staircase. Then, returning to the +drawing-room, he had joined Ethel beside the deserted tea-table. + +"After six months of the billy and the fryingpan, it is wonderfully +good to handle china again," he said, as he halted on the hearth rug +and stood smiling down at her. + +She smiled back at him in full approval. Weldon looked very much the +lord of creation, as he stood there with his back to the fire and +one elbow resting on the mantel beside him. The position suited him, +and, speaking in quite another sense, it suited her also. + +"Then a taste of civilization is pleasant now and then, even to a +grizzled warrior like yourself?" she questioned lightly. + +"Yes, for the time being. One never knows, though, how long that +time being will last." + +"What shall you do, when the war ends?" + +"Go home, take up a share in the pater's business, and grow stout +and lazy," he answered her unsmilingly. + +"An alluring prospect." + +"Yes; but there will be other things: an occasional dinner, and even +a tea now and then." + +Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at him through her long +yellow lashes. + +"And shall you never remember to miss Africa?" she asked indolently. + +His eyes rested upon her gravely. + +"Yes, often. Moreover forgive my bluntness, but it is one of the +privileges of a soldier--moreover, Miss Dent, I shall miss you." + +Her color came; but she made no effort to ignore his words. + +"Thank you," she said, with equal gravity. "I am glad to have you +say so. But I hope it may be long before that day comes." "I can't +tell. I had expected to sail for home, in a week or two. Now I am +not so sure." + +"Whether you wish to?" + +"Whether I ought. When I left the Transvaal, the work seemed nearly +done. Down here, the stories are less promising." He paused; then he +added thoughtfully, "But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my +mind." + +Coffee was served in the drawing-room, that night. Ethel roused +herself from a reverie as Weldon and Captain Frazer joined her. To +their half-mocking questions, she admitted the fact of her +thoughtfulness. To neither one did she see fit to acknowledge its +cause. The mood passed swiftly, however, and it left her more +brilliantly gay than either man had ever seen her until then. Each +frankly confessed himself dazzled; each one of them, more grave by +nature than she often showed herself, was secretly uneasy lest her +sudden overflow of spirits was in some fashion directed towards his +companion; yet so skilfully did she lead the conversation that, at +the evening's end, neither Weldon nor the Captain could produce any +valid claim to being considered the favored guest. + +"It has been good to have you here," she said gayly, as she gave +them each a hand at parting. "Even if I was not present at your +meeting, I have always felt that I had a finger-tip, at least, in +your friendship." Then, as she dropped their hands, she faced the +Captain with sudden seriousness. "Captain Frazer," she said slowly; +"Mr. Weldon's time is over, and he has left the service. He thinks +the fighting is all done. I am only a woman; I can't explain things +very clearly, and so," she hesitated a little; "and so I think I +shall leave his soul in your hands. There are plenty of people still +in South Africa; there are never too many men." And, with a grave +little nod, half intent, half girlish, she turned away from the +door, leaving the heavy drapery to sway to and fro behind her. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +Three days later, Weldon ran lightly up the stone steps and rang at +the Dents' door. + +"Is Miss Dent in?" he asked the maid. "I know it isn't her day; but +tell her I am leaving town almost immediately, and I wish to say +good by." + +Notwithstanding his message, Ethel was long about appearing, and her +face and manner, when she halted on the threshold, were a bit +unapproachable. Then, as her eyes lighted on the brown uniform and +the wide slouch hat, her whole expression changed, and she came +forward with an eagerness which she was at no pains to conceal. + +"Mr. Weldon." + +He bowed in mock humility. + +"Trooper Weldon, if you please." + +"I am delighted. Is it your old troop?" + +He shook his head. + +"No. I know the Transvaal and all its resources by heart. I have +chosen the Orange Free State. It is a new country; and, besides, all +the best of the fighting is going to be there, on the heels of De +Wet." + +"Are you a prophet?" she asked, while she dropped into a chair and +motioned to him to be seated. + +"No; but I suspect that Captain Frazer is," he answered, as he +obeyed her. + +She raised her brows questioningly. + +"Does he go, too?" + +"Not now. His staff work holds him here among the fleshpots," he +replied. "Later, he may be able to come up to us." + +"Us?" + +"The South African Light Horse." + +"Why did you choose them?" + +"Because they are to operate in the Orange River country, and +because they would have me." + +"Is that a matter to consider?" + +Weldon laughed while, placing his hat on the floor, he settled +himself more comfortably in his chair. His face was unusually +animated, that day, and his trim new uniform and his carefully-wound +putties added inches to his height and showed his lithe, lean figure +at its very best. + +"I considered it," he answered then. "It is a trick of mine, as soon +as I decide I want a thing, to be in living terror of losing it. +However, the ordeal was short and not too severe. Captain Frazer +introduced me to a little lieutenant who looked me over, asked me if +I could ride, if I could shoot a rifle and if I had had any +experience. I fancy the matter was settled beforehand. Then I went +out and treated The Nig and Piggie to some new shoes, and myself to +a new uniform, and the deed was done." + +"Are you glad, or sorry?" she asked slowly. + +"That there was no more red tape?" + +"That you decided as you did?" + +He stared at her thoughtfully for a minute. Then he answered,-- + +"But I imagine it rather decided itself. I spoke of it to you once +before, I remember, when we were up in hospital, how there never +seemed to be much choice open to me. I fancy I am deciding things; I +mull over them till I am disgusted with the whole matter. Then, +after I have made up my mind what I am going to do, I suddenly +realize that there was never any question about it from the start. I +have simply said 'yes' to an irresistible force." + +"Perhaps," she assented slowly. "I am not so sure." Then she turned +to the tangible fact. "But when do you go?" + +"To-morrow morning." + +"I am sorry it must be so soon," she said quietly. "Still, I am glad +you are going. You never would have been satisfied to sail for home +now." + +"No," he answered. "I should not." + +Then the talk halted again. + +"Where is Mr. Carew?" she asked abruptly at length, less from +interest in Carew than from a desire to escape so insistent a pause. + +"At the Mount Nelson." "Here in Cape Town?" + +"Yes. He came down with me. We volunteered together, you know, and +his time was ended, too." + +"Does he go home?" + +"No; not Harry Carew. We had decided to keep together in our plans; +in fact, it was one of the conditions of our coming out. But, from +the start, he has hated the idea of going back home as long as there +was an armed Boer left in the field." + +"And he goes with you?" + +"Yes, to Springfontein. We have our headquarters there for the +present. For Carew's sake, I hope it will be more riding and +scouting than actual fighting. The man is made of some material that +draws all the bullets in sight." + +Ethel smiled. + +"Don't let him stop near you, then," she advised. + +"Why not? He is as good as a shield. It is hard on him, though. He +was hit four or five times before Vlaakfontein, and has had one +scratch since." + +"What is the trouble? Is he foolhardy?" + +"Foolhardy in war, Miss Dent?" + +"Yes, just that. There is no sense in taking needless risks." + +"But it is mighty hard to draw the line between avoiding needless +risks and funking necessary ones," he answered. "But Carew isn't +reckless. He is plucky, but very level-headed, and he means to take +care of himself, when he can. One can't always, you know. And then +he is wonderfully unlucky." + +"You believe in luck, then?" + +"Yes, or Fate. What else makes a man move out of the way, just in +time for the bullet to graze his cheek? He doesn't see the bullet +coming; neither does the man who stops it. Both of them are busy +about something else. For the man who escapes it, it is Providence; +for the man who gets killed, it is Fate." + +She tried to rouse him from his sudden gravity. + +"And for both, it is mere chance." + +"If you call it that. Miss Dent--" He hesitated. + +"Yes," she assented gravely. + +"It was only a chance, but a strange one," he went on, with his eyes +fixed on the topmost ridge of his brown puttie. "We were climbing +the face of a kopje, one day. It was very steep, and we crawled up a +narrow trail in single file. Two days before, our guns had been +shelling the whole kopje, and they must have cracked it up badly. +All at once, the man above me loosened a great lump of rock. I was +exactly underneath it. It gave a little bound outward, went +completely over me and struck full on the head of the next man in +line." + +The girl sat, bending forward in her chair, her strong, quiet hands +clasped loosely in her lap. + +"And he?" she asked quite low. + +"He dropped to the foot of the kopje, dead. In his fall, he dragged +down the next man after him, and his leg was crushed." + +"And you were saved!" she said a bit breathlessly. + +"Doesn't it make you feel a vague responsibility, as if you must +live up to something that you couldn't quite understand?" + +Without looking up, he bowed in assent. + +"Yes," he said then. "Don't think me foolishly superstitious, Miss +Dent, or too egotistic. I try not to pay much attention to it. Once +in a while, though, not too often, it all comes back over me, and I +feel then as if my life might have been kept for something that is +still ahead of me." + +"And doesn't it leave you feeling anxious about making all your +decisions?" she asked slowly, as she leaned back again in her chair. + +"At first. Then I remember how that, and some other things have been +settled for me." + +"What then?" + +"Then I shut my teeth and face forward. All one can do, is to forget +the future and take the present as it comes, making the best of each +minute and leaving the hour to look out for itself," he answered +simply. "Sometimes one makes better progress by drifting than he +does by punting against the current." + +She bit her lip. + +"Sometimes I think, though--" Suddenly she roused herself and gave a +nervous little laugh. "Captain Frazer is coming up the steps," she +added. + +"You think?" Weldon reminded her, as she rose. + +But she shook her head and laughed again, this time more in her +natural manner. + +"I think that I wish you would bring Mr. Carew to call on me, next +time you come," she said evasively. + +"Thank you. He will be glad to come. The only question is when the +next time will arrive." + +"You said Captain Frazer was a prophet," she said, as she moved +towards the door. "Ask him." + +Tall, alert, eager, the Captain entered the room in time to catch +her words. + +"A prophet of what and to whom, Miss Dent?" he asked, as he bowed +over her outstretched hand. + +"To Mr. Weldon, in regard to the future fighting," she answered +gayly. + +"You here, Weldon?" + +"Yes, to say good by." + +Captain Frazer nodded. + +"I saw Mitchell, this morning. He spoke well of you; of Carew, too, +for the matter of that. He told me your troop would be off in the +morning, and asked me to diagnose your best points." + +"Could you find any?" Weldon asked imperturbably. "A few. I told him +you could sit tight and shoot straight," the Captain answered, +laughing. Then he added gravely, "And I also told him you could ride +the fiend incarnate, and that, as far as I knew, you didn't lose +your head when you were under fire." + +For the instant, Weldon forgot his hostess, as he looked up to meet +the Captain's blue eyes squarely. + +"Thank you. But it is more than I deserve." + +"Then you must try to live up to it," Ethel advised him languidly. +"It merely increases your responsibilities, for now you have two +reputations to support, your own for pluck and the Captain's for +being a judge of his fellowmen. It is an awful weight that you are +carrying on your shoulders, Mr. Weldon." + +"If it grows too heavy, I will slide some of it off on your own," he +returned, as he picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "Your +responsibility is back of mine, Miss Dent. It was you who advised me +to stay in South Africa." + +"Not at all. I presented the case and kept my advice to myself," she +rebelled promptly. + +"Certain presentments are stronger than much advising." + +"Perhaps. But in the end, you remember, I commended your soul to +Captain Frazer's keeping." + +He bowed with the odd, old-fashioned deference which it pleased him +to assume at times. "Captain Frazer may have saved it; but it may +have been you who made it worth his efforts at salvation." + +She laughed again. Nevertheless, her eyes showed her pleasure. + +"Then we, Captain Frazer and I, must divide the responsibility for +your future," she replied. "In any case, may it be all good!" + +The drapery fell backward over his departing figure, and, for an +instant, Ethel stood staring at the swaying folds. Then, turning, +she walked back to the fire. + +"All good," she repeated. "I know you echo the wish, Captain Frazer. +But--isn't it hard to say good by?" + +"In these days most of all," he assented slowly. "And one never can +tell when his own turn may come." + +"Nor what its end may be," she added. Then impetuously she rose +again and moved up and down the room. "Look at that sunshine +outside, Captain Frazer," she said restlessly. "It ought to forbid +any such gloomy moods. I believe all this war and so many partings +are spoiling my nerve. I really feel quite blue, to-day; and Mr. +Weldon made it worse." + +"By saying good by?" + +Glancing up, she was astonished at the wishful, hungry look in the +blue eyes before her. "Yes, a little," she said lightly; "for I hate +the very word. But, if it must be spoken, it should always be short +and staccato. Instead, he sat here, and we talked about Fate and +wounds and all sorts of direful things." She shook herself and +shivered slightly. Then she sat down in the chair which Weldon had +just left vacant. "It is bad manners to have nerves, Captain Frazer. +Forgive me first, and then tell me something altogether flippant, to +make me forget things." + +But her mood had caught the Captain in its grasp. + +"Are you sure you want to forget?" he asked her gravely. + +"Yes," she made vehement answer. "Always!" + +But not even her decided answer brought back the eager light into +his dark blue eyes. + +Nevertheless, an hour later found him still sitting there. Ethel's +depression had vanished, to be followed by a mood of wayward +merriment for which the honest, straightforward soldier was totally +at a loss to account. Sincere himself, he looked for sincerity in +others. If Ethel's gravity had been unfeigned, how could it so soon +give place to her present buoyancy? Not the strictest code of +hospitality could demand that a hostess should straightway toss +aside the thought of the parting guest who had gone away to battle +and, perhaps, to sudden death. And, if the girl had been insincere +in her parting from Weldon, why should she be sincere in her present +absorption in his own interests? And, if her regrets for Weldon were +as great as they had seemed to be, then what was the use of his +remaining by her side any longer? The horns of the dilemma extended +themselves to infinity and branched again and again as they +extended. Meanwhile, his eyes were full of trouble, and his answers +to her questions were vague and faltering. Until her sudden trip to +Johannesburg, Captain Frazer had taken the girl as a matter of +course. Since then, he had begun to doubt, and the doubts were +thickening. + +But, after all, there was no real reason for doubt. During her one +short season in London, the Captain had met Ethel constantly, he had +been quite obviously the favorite of the old aunt who had presided +over the girl's introduction to society, and his later meetings with +Ethel at sundry week-end gatherings had convinced him that he had no +serious rival. Then had come the war; and Ethel's absence from town +had made a farewell impossible. Captain Frazer had sailed away, +leaving the past behind him; but the future was still his, to be +lost or won, according to the use he made of his manhood's chances. + +And then, on the dazzling summer morning which had ushered in the +new century, he had caught a glimpse of Ethel riding towards home. +Three days later, as he had gone away down the broad white steps, he +had felt convinced that the future already lay in his grasp. It had +been the selfsame Ethel, unchanged and changeless to his loyal mind, +who had met him with smiling, eager cordiality. The year of +separation was cast aside; their friendship began again at the +precise spot where it had been broken off. + +Since then, he had seen her often, occasionally alone, sometimes +with her mother, sometimes the central figure of a little crowd who +were obviously striving to win her favor. Her father's fortune was +in part the cause of this; but the greater, surer cause lay within +the girl's own personality. Ethel Dent was no negative character. +However, Captain Frazer had never found her too absorbed in her +other companions to be able to give him a share of her attention +which differed from all other shares that she bestowed, in being a +bit more personal in its cordiality. His black-fringed blue eyes +were keen and far-sighted. They assured him that, whatever her +regard for him, at least it was true that, in all her Cape Town +life, there was no man for whom Ethel Dent had a sincerer liking. +And then, all at once, a doubt had assailed his mind, and the doubt +had centered itself in this long, lean Canadian with the grave, +steady face and the boyish manner. Worst of all, the doubt had +scarcely arisen before he himself had become aware of his own +growing liking for the young Canadian. Captain Leo Frazer was +strictly just. He admitted to himself that Weldon was in every way +worthy to be chosen by Ethel Dent. However, he was determined as +well as just, and he had no mind at all to allow Ethel Dent to +choose any man but one, and that one was himself, Leo Frazer. + +And now he was sitting moodily by her fireside, listening to her +light, easy flow of talk and asking himself certain questions, which +he was powerless to answer. + +As he rose at last, some sudden impulse made him speak from the very +midst of his train of thought. + +"Did you know he had refused a commission?" he asked, regardless of +antecedents. + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. + +"No. Did he?" + +"Yes. Mitchell told me, this morning." + +"I wonder why." + +"He said he had pledged himself to stay with the rank and file, that +it was easier to take orders than to give them." + +"Strange!" she said thoughtfully. + +"Strange that he should feel so?" + +She shook her head. + +"No. He told me about that, coming out. I am not surprised. But it +is strange that he shouldn't have spoken of the matter now." + +"It was like him. He doesn't tell all his best deeds," Captain +Frazer said, with direct frankness "Still, I thought it was fairer +that you should know." + +Her color came, as she met his eyes; but she offered no question in +regard to the meaning of his final phrase. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +"Good reason they call them kopjes," Carew grumbled scornfully, as +he swept his arm about the encircling landscape. "Every flat-top +hill is an exact copy of every other flat-top hill, and they all are +more or less hideous to behold. My one source of rejoicement lies in +the fact that the pattern was worn out down here, instead of being +sent up to make our mountains by. I hate a bobtail horse; but it's +nothing so bad as these everlasting bobtail hills. And, by Jove, +there comes another dust devil!" + +Far away across the veldt, a tiny spurt of dust twirled up into the +air and came spinning towards them like a huge, translucent top. +Gaining momentum as it spun along and picking up more dust as it +advanced, it came whirling onward, rising high and higher until it +swept down on them, a huge, khaki-colored, balloon-like mass. It +caught them in its whirl, ground its stinging, sifting particles +into their clothing, their skin and even into their shut eyes. Then +it passed them by, and went spinning away in its course. Carew swore +softly, as he wiped the dust from his lashes. + +"Beastly things! There really ought to be a society formed for the +suppression of dust devils in their infancy. What do you suppose +becomes of the things, Weldon? There's no stopping them, once they +get under way; and, at their rate of growth, they could bury a +township in their old age." + +"Granted they could find one to bury," Weldon returned. "Meanwhile, +observe your bath tub." + +Carew glanced down at the dust-filled buckets at his feet. + +"Oh, hang!" he said concisely. "And I was about to prink." + +"One would think you needed it now more than ever," Weldon answered, +as he shook himself free from the thickest of the dust. "What's the +use of trying to keep clean, Carew?" + +"Precious little. I used to talk about I 'the un-tubbed.' Now I +mean, merely for the sake of example, to shave twice in the month, +and swab myself off between whiles. It's not for comfort, I assure +you. It's my belief that an occasional bath is worse than none. It +merely stirs up memories of the buried past, and aspirations that +can't be fulfilled. However--" And Carew, the quondam exquisite, +pulled off his socks and shirt, punched them down into one of the +buckets and then did his British best to wash himself in the other. + +His lamentations rose again, however, when he put on his +time-stained uniform once more. + +"I now understand why Brother Boer sleeps in his clothes," he +observed grimly. "Cleanliness, may be next to godliness; but it is +mighty near the edge of the diabolical to put yourself back into +clothes that are only fit for the dust bin. When I am field marshal +of a long campaign, my first act will be to establish swimming tanks +and laundries as a branch of the Army Service Corps. Meanwhile, see +here!" His open hand came down on his dust-colored coat. Ten minutes +later, the print of every finger was still distinctly visible. + +Weldon watched him sympathetically. Thanks to the efforts of Kruger +Bobs, his own clothing was slightly less filled with dust, and his +abandoned socks came back to him in a state of comparative +cleanliness. Satisfied with the fact, he made no effort to inquire +into the method of its achievement. + +Carew, meanwhile, his coat off, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, +was grappling with his efforts to produce laundry effect from a +wooden bucket and a few quarts of dingy water. Beyond splashing his +putties and giving himself a pain in the hinges of his back, he +accomplished little. The garments were very wet; but their griminess +was increased, rather than diminished. Carew's face fell, as he +lifted them one by one. Then he shook his head. + +"They certainly aren't cleaner; but they may be a bit fresher for +being irrigated," he observed hopefully. "Look out!" + +Weldon dodged out of range, as a sock, squeezed from the ankle +downward, yielded up its irrigation in a sudden spurt through the +toe. + +"Hold on, Carew; I'm no candidate for baptism," he adjured his +friend. "Let your things soak for a while, and I'll send Kruger Bobs +over to take them in hand, as soon as he gets through polishing off +The Nig." + +Carew straightened his aching back. + +"I'll change work with him," he suggested promptly. "A horse is on +your own level; it's degrading to run a Chinese laundry." + +Weldon glanced from the wooden bucket to the soaked wrists and +splashed putties of his companion. + +"I wish Miss Mellen could see you now, Carew," he remarked unkindly. + +With unexpected suddenness, Carew mounted his dignity. + +"Unfortunately Miss Mellen is at Johannesburg. Moreover, Miss Mellen +has probably seen men in this mess before now," he answered a little +shortly. + +"Doubtless. She may have been in a similar fix, herself. If she +were, I suspect she would put it through and come out on top," +Weldon replied, with an accent of hearty and respectful admiration +which mollified his companion. "There's my call. I must go to +inspect my day nursery." And, leaving Carew beside his amateur +wash-tub, he went striding away to the farther side of the camp where a +hollow between the hills had been converted into a monstrous kraal. +Involuntarily he smiled, as he walked off to his duty. Carew had +been an edifying spectacle, as he had sacrificed himself upon the +altar of cleanliness. He had been neither deft, dignified nor +devout; and, in all truth, Alice Mellen would have found it hard to +recognize her finical patient in the dusty, unshaven man whose hair +bore unmistakable signs of having been pruned with a pair of pocket +scissors. Little of Carew's past month had been spent in the base +camp at Springfontein. With hundreds of other men, he had gone +galloping up and down the Free State on the slippery heels of De +Wet, now being shot at by prowling Boers, now engaged in a lively +skirmish from which he never made his exit totally unscathed, now +riding for weary, dusty miles upon a scent which ultimately proved +to be a false one. And, meanwhile, not a postbag came into camp +without a letter for Carew, bearing the mark of Johannesburg. It was +not altogether resultless that Carew's foot had been obstinately +slow in its healing. + +To Weldon, a fixture in camp, fell the care of receiving Carew's +mail. At last, when one day the bag brought in two letters addressed +in the same dashing, angular handwriting, he forsook his principles +and made open comment. + +"There is a slight monotony about your mail, in these latter days, +Carew," he observed dispassionately. And Carew had answered, with +perfect composure,-- + +"Yes, in view of my chronic trick of being potted at, I find it wise +to keep on good terms with my nurse. It may prove handy in case of +accident, like an insurance policy, you know. Is that all?" And, +cramming the letters into his pocket, he walked away to his tent. + +And Weldon, as he watched him, nodded contentedly to himself. He +liked Carew; he also liked Alice Mellen. Beyond that, he made no +effort to go. Just now, he cared to penetrate the thoughts of but +one woman. The others he was willing to take on trust. Nevertheless, +it would have caused him some surprise, could he have reviewed all +the mental processes of Alice Mellen, during the past ten months. +For Weldon, the days at Springfontein differed not one whit, one +from another, yet each day was full of an excitement which sent his +blood stinging through his veins. Every man in the regiment could +ride a broken horse; but, for many of them their attainments stopped +there, and broken horses were few and far between. With the +increasing need of troopers for the guerrilla raiding into which the +war was degenerating, with the inevitable losses of a long campaign, +mounts of any kind were scarce. Nevertheless, consternation had +descended upon the camp, one day, when three hundred kicking, +squealing American bronchos had been detrained and placed at their +service. The next day, casualties were frequent; on the day after +that, there was made announcement that mounted parade would be +omitted. Weldon read the notice, smiled and went in search of his +captain. He was tired of inaction, and he felt his muscles growing +soft. They hardened speedily, however. + +Day after day, he went striding into the kraal whence, after a +skirmish which was more or less prolonged, he emerged astride a +mount which, with shrieking voice and rampant hoofs, gave notice to +all that such a liberty could not be permitted. Nevertheless, it was +permitted. Sometimes, the final contest took place miles away from +the point of its beginning. Sometimes horse and rider settled the +matter in the course of a few concentric circles of an hundred-yard +radius; sometimes it bucked; sometimes it rolled, and sometimes it +merely sat down upon its haunches, dog-wise, and refused to budge. +Almost invariably, it came out from the contest, unscarred save for +its dignity and its temper. Weldon's lips shut tight; but his eyes +rarely blazed. These wild, frightened creatures taxed his patience +and his resource; but they hardly touched his temper in the least. + +"What's the use of thrashing a beast that's mad with terror?" he +answered one critical amateur who had watched the game from a safe +distance. "The creature is in a funk, as it is; there's no use in +adding to it. All I'm after is to teach 'em that saddles and bridles +don't bite. Treat 'em decently and sit tight, and they'll come right +and learn to trust you in the end." + +And, as mount after mount was delivered over to the waiting +authorities, it came to be a matter of general belief that the +regimental rough-rider knew his business, albeit he accomplished it +more by dint of urging than by many blows. Six weeks of this work +had told upon him, told in the right direction. Under the brown +skin, the muscles stood out like knotted cords; his nerves were +steady; he ate like a wolf and slept the dreamless sleep of a +healthy child. To the outward eye, his face changed but little. Its +outlines were more rugged, the curves of his lips a bit more +resolute; but that was all. + +Now and then, amid the merry group at the camp fire, he sat silent, +while he let his mind range away to the southward. Somewhere there, +in the green-ringed town in the mountain's shelter, was a tall girl +with yellow hair and eyes which matched the zenith when it darkens +after the dropping of the sun. His fancy painted her in every +conceivable situation: walking, riding, resting at noonday in the +shaded western end of the veranda, or pouring tea for relays of +thirsty guests. As a rule, the Captain's figure was in the +background of these pictures, and Weldon was content to have it so. +In all South Africa, these were his two best friends; it was good +that they could be together. And the Captain was an older man, much +older. When one lives in the open air during twenty-four hours of +every day, jealousy has scant place in his mind. The smaller vices +are for the cramped town, not for the limitless, unbroken veldt. + +And now and then a day brought with it a letter, frank, friendly and +full of news. Those days Weldon marked with a white stone; but his +sleep, on those nights, was as quiet and dreamless as ever. Facts +were facts. Theories and hopes were for the future; and no man looks +much to the future in a time of war. + +Besides the letters, there were minor events, too, events which went +to fill up the letters of reply. Now it was a hospital train which +halted at the camp on the way southward, and each red-taped nurse +had reminded him of Alice Mellen, and of those last days in +Johannesburg. Now it was a two-day trek, as escort for a convoy +train whose long lines of bullock-drawn wagons marked the brown +veldt with a wavering stripe of duller brown. Again a wounded picket +came straying back to camp, bleeding and dazed, to report the +inevitable sniping which furnished the running accompaniment to most +other events; or an angry squad came riding in, to tell of the shots +which had followed close upon the raising of the white flag, or of +the score of armed men who had suddenly leaped out from the safe +shelter of a Red-Cross ambulance. And, on one occasion, he had been +in the thick of a similar fray. Hand to hand, he had fought on the +doorsteps of a farmhouse to which he and his five comrades had been +bidden by a sprightly Boer in gown and sunbonnet. At the door, the +bonnet had been cast from the cropped head, and the gown had been +pushed back to give access to the bandolier beneath, while a dozen +shots from an upper window had driven them from the dooryard into +the comparative shelter of the lower rooms. The skirmish had ended +with a charge up the stairway. Weldon, that same night, had written +to Ethel a wholly humorous account of the whole affair, and it was +not until long afterwards that she had learned from Carew, who had +been of the party, which was the trooper who had mounted guard over +the room where the aged grandmother had tucked herself away under +her bed. The old Dutch vrouw had bidden him to share her shelter; +but he had taken note of her dimensions, and had declined her +hospitality. Later on, when the fight was over and she had painfully +wriggled her way out from her trap, he had also declined certain of +her manifestations of gratitude. Even chivalry to the aged possesses +its humorous side. + +Then, one November night, Weldon came into his tent with alert step +and glowing eyes. He found Carew going through his camp outfit in +detail, and, squatting on the floor in the corner, Kruger Bobs was +cleaning accoutrements as if his life depended on it. + +"You look as if events were about to happen," he observed, from the +dispassionate distance of the doorway. + +"They are." + +"Ask them to include me, then." + +"What do you need of events, you regimental broncho-buster?" + +"One gets sick of even the best horseflesh in time," he answered +nonchalantly. + +"Sorry, for you are doomed to more of it." + +"Another herd of bronchos?" Weldon's voice showed that the idea +displeased him. + +"No; but a two-hundred-mile trek across country." + +"Good. I am tired of being cooped up, and a spin of that kind will +be a boon." + +Carew settled back on his heels and looked up at him. + +"Spin is it! Your only spin will be on your own axis. We are to act +as escort for a convoy train of fifty wagons and ten times fifty +mules. We shall make six miles a day, and our tongues will be wholly +corrupted by the language of the mule-drivers. And, in the end, we +shall get to--" + +"A glorious fight, I trust," Weldon supplemented. + +Gloomily Carew shook his head. "No; merely to Winburg. We are going +to provision Weppener and Ladybrand, and then make for the railroad +again. We'll strike it at Winburg most likely. It is an unholy sort +of hole, and I hear that the hotel serves watered ink and currant +jelly under the name of claret. We shall sit there and sip it, until +the train arrives, and then we shall entrain and come back again. +And this," he emphasized his words by plumping forward on his knees +once more; "and this is war!" + +"Yes; but it lets us out on a longer leash than I have had for some +time," Weldon said serenely. "Anyway, it is well for you that it is +not likely to be a bloody campaign, for you'll be headed straight +away from Johannesburg, and I misdoubt me if Winburg holds a +hospital." + +"Judging from my past records, it will have to found one, then," +Carew answered composedly. "If I have to go through two hundred +miles of the enemy's country, they might as well open up, in +readiness for my coming. But what is the letter, old man?" + +"News. Yours had knocked it out of my mind, though. Mine comes off +later. Captain Frazer has been transferred to the South African +Light Horse, and will come up here as adjutant, on the first." + +Carew's face brightened. + +"That's good hearing. He will be higher still, before De Wet is +taken." "I hope so. Anyway, he is coming to us. Think of having him +about again!" + +"Much good will it do us! An adjutant doesn't mess with the +trooper." + +"Frazer will stick to his friends." + +"Mayhap. Still, better men than he have gone dizzy, as they went up +the ladder, and dizziness makes people look at what's above them, +rather than at what is below," Carew answered oracularly. "Frazer's +influence will be sound, and we shall feel it from one end of things +to the other. Aside From that, we aren't likely to be much affected +by his coming. Did Miss Dent tell any other news?" + +"As it happens, Miss Dent didn't tell me this." + +"Who, then?" + +"Captain Frazer, himself," Weldon answered, with a quiet relish of +his own victory. "He sends messages and all that to you." Then he +added, "And who else do you think is coming?" + +"With him?" + +"Yes." + +Carew shook his head. + +"I've no idea, unless Lord Kitchener is about to pay us a visit. +There were rumors of it, a week or so ago." + +"Guess again. It's a mightier than Lord Kitchener, this time." + +"Can't be." + +Weldon laughed. "It is, for it is a man trained to two weapons, who +has beaten his kettles into a helmet and his pepper-pot into a +cartridge-box." + +"Paddy?" + +"Yes, Paddy. The Captain writes that he is thirsting for gore and +glory, and that he has learned to ride anything from a clotheshorse +to a nightmare." + +Carew laughed. + +"Paddy all over. He never could take things as they came." + +"Except Parrott's horse," Weldon suggested. + +"How did he get out of that scrape?" + +"Went out. There was talk of official vengeance; but Paddy vanished, +that same night. A week later, he turned up at the Captain's room in +Cape Town, with a bundle of clothes and a story that was as leaky as +a sieve. The Captain sent him out to Maitland to be licked into +shape, and this is the result." + +"No," Carew objected in a sudden burst of prophecy. "Mind my words, +Paddy has not resulted yet. That will come, later on in the game." + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +Winburg may have all the elements of greatness; but greatness itself +is lacking. Nevertheless, after watching a convoy train tool along +over the green-flecked yellow veldt at the rate of six miles a day, +after seeing nothing but an occasional isolated farmhouse, the +little town appeared like a centre of civilization and excitement to +the bored troopers, as they rode up the main street and pitched camp +on the western edge of the town. There they sat and idly wondered +behind which particular hill was the largest commando. No type of +boredom is more acute than that which links itself with periods of +inaction in the army. Fifteen minutes would have sufficed to exhaust +the resources of Winburg; the troopers remained there for fifteen +days. Only Kruger Bobs was fully in his element. His daily grooming +of the broncho and his master once over, his time was his own, and +he employed it to the best of his ability. Fate had endowed Kruger +Bobs with a smile which won instant liking and gained instant +fulfilment of his wishes. Just as, months before, he had sat on the +river bank at Piquetberg Road, and grinned persuasively at the jam +tins, so now he ranged up and down among the farms scattered about +Winburg, and grinned himself into possession of manifold eggs and +plump fowls and even of soft wheat bread, the final luxury of the +biscuit-sated trooper who owned his fealty. + +"'Is thy servant a dog?'" Carew had quoted gravely at sight of his +first army biscuit. + +And Weldon had made answer,-- + +"Not if he knows it. I have always had full sympathy with my hound +who leaves his dog-bread in favor of a bit of oak planking gnawed +out from his kennel floor." + +But Carew was less dainty. Nevertheless, he attacked the biscuit +with two flat stones, and mixed the debris with his coffee. + +Now, however, thanks to the efforts of Kruger Bobs, they were living +thriftily and upon the fat of the land. + +"How do you get it all, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon had demanded, one day. +"To my sure knowledge, you've no money, and people hereabouts don't +love the British. What is your secret?" + +Kruger Bobs ducked his bristly head into his ragged hat, and gave an +explosive chuckle. Then he raised his head and scratched it +demurely. + +"Kruger Bobs just gits it, Boss," he explained comprehensively. + +He came in, the next night, his pockets stuffed, his mouth wide ajar +and the very whites of his eyes full of mystery. Carew and Weldon, +sitting together, glanced up as he appeared. Instantly, as he caught +sight of Carew, Kruger Bobs veiled his emotion and sought to become +properly nonchalant. Nevertheless, it was plain that he had tidings +to impart; and at length, over the top of Carew's head, he fell to +making graphic, yet totally unintelligible, signs to his master. + +"What in thunder do you want, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon demanded. + +Kruger Bobs heaved an ostentatious sigh, cast at Weldon one flashing +grin, and then asked dolorously,-- + +"Me speak Boss out dere?" + +"What under heaven is the matter with you, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon +asked, as he departed on the heels of his serving man. + +Kruger Bobs slapped his thigh noiselessly, vanished behind his +smile, then reappeared to put his lips to Weldon's ear and whisper +in raucous triumph--"Syb down dere Winburg." + +"What? Who is Syb?" Weldon queried blankly. + +Kruger Bobs straightened, in dignified resentment at his master's +ignorance. + +"Syb be my vrouw soon." + +"Oh, I see. No wonder you look elated, you rascal. So you have been +courting?" + +The grin reappeared. "Ya, Boss. More, too." + +"What now?" "Kruger Bobs got despatch from Syb for Boss." + +Weldon's face expressed his amusement. + +"Much obliged to the lady. Give her mine." "Syb say--" Again the +thick black lips approached Weldon's ear, and the bristly head +nodded energetically in time to the moving lips. + +"Who?" Weldon said incredulously. "Miss Mellen?" + +"Ya, Boss." + +"How does Syb--Is that what you call her?--how does she know? Oh, I +remember now. It is the girl who served at Miss Mellen's home," +Weldon said, as light began to dawn. + +"Ya, Boss; dat Syb." + +"And she is here with Miss Mellen?" + +Kruger Bobs nodded. + +"What are they doing?" + +"Dey is nurses sick mens." "How long have they been here?" + +"One, tree, five day." + +"Five days," Weldon translated to himself. "It was an odd chance, +your running on her so soon. Did she know we were here?" + +"She tink ya," Kruger Bobs replied. "Syb no tell." "But why not?" + +The matter-of-course question appeared to fill Kruger Bobs with +amazement. + +"Boss make night march," he answered. "She may not care to have me. +Still, we'll ride out there with you in the morning." + +"Boss?" + +"Mr. Carew and myself." + +Kruger Bobs looked hurt. In hot excitement, the black fingers closed +on a fold of the brown sleeve. + +"Kruger Bobs go, too?" + +"What makes you want to go?" + +"Syb dere, Boss." + +"I don't see what difference that makes," Weldon said reflectively. + +Once more Kruger Bobs turned coy. + +"Boss go see his vrouw; me go see Syb," he explained briefly. + +Weldon's laugh astonished him; still more Weldon's answer. + +"Oh, Kruger Bobs, you love-struck calf! Because you're in love with +Syb, do you think it follows that I am in love with Miss Mellen?" + +Kruger Bobs plotted geometrical problems with his left toe. + +"Syb say," he replied at length. Then he raised his eyes from his +problem. "Boss vrouw good," he ventured persuasively. + +Weldon laughed again. + +"So we all think. Mr. Carew knows her much better than I do, though, +and Miss Mellen would be hurt, if he didn't go out to see her." + +But Kruger Bobs stood his ground. "Boss Weldon go see his vrouw; +Kruger Bobs go see his vrouw; Boss Carew no vrouw." + +However, in spite of the advice of Kruger Bobs, Carew was at +Weldon's side, as they rode through Winburg, the next morning. + +Already the country was taking on the look of summer, and the dusty +stretches of veldt were tinged here and there with thin patches of +growing green. Over the hills nearest the town were scattered the +lines of ruined trenches, still littered here and there with rusty +tools dropped there by the Boers when, long months before, they had +caught sight of the advancing armies of French and Hutton. As they +drew nearer, Weldon could make out the familiar details of a field +hospital: the low white tents in their circle of whitewashed stones, +the Red-Cross nurses hurrying to and fro and the blue-coated +convalescents strolling leisurely about the enclosure. Carew, +meanwhile, had pushed forward. Above the P. M. O.'s tent fluttered +the Red Cross, and he had caught sight of a white apron and a +scarlet cape in the open door. + +"Miss Mellen! Alice!" + +In the still air of a summer noon, Carew's voice carried distinctly +back to Weldon. He glanced towards the tent. Then, beckoning to +Kruger Bobs, he turned and rode away to inspect the distant +landscape. + +An hour later, Kruger Bobs was squatting on the ground, a heaped +plate on his knees and a smile of rapture surrounding his smacking +lips. Near him, the three horses munched contentedly, stamping +lightly now and then and whisking their tails to drive off the +buzzing flies. Outside the door of the tent, Alice Mellen sat on a +bench, with Carew at her side and Weldon sprawling lazily on the +ground at her feet. + +"Twenty-seven inside," she told them. "It is mostly enteric and S. +C., men who have been sent here from Bloemfontein. Their hospitals +are overcrowded. We have both sorts here, you know." + +"Nursing Boers?" Carew asked, disapprovingly. + +"Why not? They are men, plucky men, too, some of them. I rather like +the race. Anyway, it makes an interesting mixture. We have had to +put them all together, and they get on capitally, exchanging stories +and gossip and sympathy like men of the same company. One of them, a +Boer,--" she hesitated for the right word; then she adopted the +vernacular of the service--"went out, the other day; and, among his +mourners, the sincerest ones were the two London Tommies in the two +next beds. War isn't all hatred, by any means. Turn nurse for a +month and you'll find it out." + +"Or else turn patient," Carew interpolated quietly. + +Her color came; but she only turned more directly to Weldon. + +"I was glad to come here for a change," she added. "Shall you stay +here long?" + +"It is impossible to tell. The other nurses here are younger at it +than I, and there are some hard cases. If it were not for Syb, I +should be at my wits' end sometimes." + +"Then ought you to stay here?" Carew urged, with a sudden assumption +of proprietorship which sat well upon him. + +She faced him with a smile. + +"Oh, but this is nothing in comparison with Johannesburg. There the +work is agonizing. Between wounds and enteric, the place is crammed, +and we can't get the nurses we absolutely need. My mother thought I +was growing too tired, and she sent Syb up here to take care of me. +Instead, I have pressed her into the service and trained her until +she is one of the best nurses I have ever had under me. The men +adore her, she is so strong and so full of her queer, jolly fun." + +With his head pillowed on his arms, Weldon lay watching her +thoughtfully. Under her piles of inky hair, her face looked thin, +and the shadows lay heavy around her eyes. Nevertheless, the eyes +were shining and the curves of the lips were all upward. Plainly the +day had brought her a tonic; yet the past six months had told upon +the girl pitilessly. + +"But, for God's sake, when is it all to end?" he burst out suddenly. + +"Tired of the service, Mr. Weldon?" she asked gravely, but with no +accent of reproach. + +"Not tired of my own. But the worst of it all comes back on you +women, and that is maddening." + +She smiled down at him, and the light in her eyes deepened and grew +yet more womanly. + +"It is all we can do to help, Mr. Weldon. Let us take what share we +can. The work is hard, hard and discouraging; but--" involuntarily +she glanced at Carew's happy, handsome face; "but now and then it +brings its own reward." + +The short silence was broken only by Kruger Bobs, scraping his spoon +along his fast-emptying plate. Then Alice spoke again. + +"You hear often from Cooee, Mr. Weldon?" + +"Now and then. Not often." + +"Did you know that she may come to us, after Christmas?" + +"No," he said alertly. "To Johannesburg?" + +She nodded. + +"We need her, and my aunt has almost given her consent. The need +grows greater, every day; we can't hold out much longer, unless we +can have more help. Cooee isn't trained at all; but she has endless +tact and she knows how to take orders. Unless January brings us +fewer patients, I think she will come north for a month." "Does she +wish to?" + +Alice laughed. + +"As a matter of mere conscience. Cooee hates lint and disinfectants +and the hush of things; but she begins to see the need before her. +She makes all manner of fun of me, and of the whole hospital scheme +of things; but still I think she will come. My aunt opposes it; but +we are trying to compromise on a month. That won't wear Cooee out, +and the novelty will last for that length of time, and help keep up +her enthusiasm." + +"Did you know Captain Frazer is coming up, in a week or two?" + +For an instant, Alice's eyes clouded. + +"No. When did you hear?" + +"Just as I left camp. The appointment took him quite by surprise, +and he wrote to me at once," Weldon answered with quiet dignity, for +he was not slow to read the question in the girl's mind. + +Her face cleared. + +"I hadn't heard. Cooee's last letter is three weeks old, so it +couldn't bring the news." Then she glanced over her shoulder, as one +of the doctors halted on the threshold. "Am I needed?" + +"Young Walpole is just going," he said gravely. "He has asked for +you." + +Both men rose to their feet. It was Carew, however, who lingered. + +"We are leaving Winburg, to-morrow, so this is good by," he said +regretfully. "Take care of yourself, Alice, and bless you!" And, +underneath its happiness, his boyish face was unusually grave, as he +mounted and rode away at Weldon's side. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + + +Christmas morning found the camp at Lindley wakening to a general +atmosphere of peace and good will to man. Scarcely fifty miles away +at Tweefontein, De Wet's midnight charge had left behind it sixty +men sleeping their last grim sleep in defiance of the peace ordained +for the Christmas dawn. And, midway between the camp of the living +and the line of the dead, there lay the little town of Bethlehem. + +After the frosty night, the day came, hot and clear, with the sun +beating down from a cloudless sky and the mirage dancing upon the +distant horizon. To the men from the north, it was a bit of a shock +to exchange Christmas greetings, while the thermometer went sliding +up to the mark of one hundred degrees. Nevertheless, they hailed one +another lustily, and threw themselves into the spirit of the holiday +feast with the zest of schoolboys. + +For full three months now, the greater number of the troopers had +been dodging up and down over the surface of the Orange River Colony +on the heels of the tireless De Wet. After accomplishing forty +futile miles a day, after subsisting chiefly upon army biscuits and +bully beef, they had earned their right to rest. This, at least, was +the opinion of their adjutant. + +All the day before, there had been flying rumors of a forced march +on the following morning; but no orders had been given, and just at +nightfall had come the definite announcement that no move would be +made until after Christmas. Those who had seen their adjutant going +away from the colonel's tent, half an hour before, were able to draw +their own conclusions. The rest accepted the fact as it stood, and +made no effort to account for the change in their plans. It was +enough for them that two thousand sheep were to be roasted, to the +end that every man might eat his fill; and they took an eager hand, +next morning, in scooping out the ant-hill and kindling the fires +inside. Then, seated on the ground, they spun their yarns while they +waited until the white-hot earth on top of the hill gave notice that +the oven was ready for the roast. + +Carew, meanwhile, was unpacking the neat little parcel which had +come to him with Christmas greeting from the Daughters of the +Empire. Lined up for inspection before breakfast, every trooper had +received an exactly similar parcel; every one had given expression +to his thankful heart; then every one had gone away to inspect the +offering. + +"This is kind of the ladies, very kind," Carew was observing, with a +perfectly grave face, as he drew out a handkerchief of spotty red +cotton and a khaki-colored nightcap. "Look, Weldon! These fit my +complexion to a charm, and will be wonderfully warm and comfortable. +What is in your grab bag?" + +"Ditto, apparently," Weldon answered. "I think I shall keep these to +sport about at home in." + +Carew shook his head. + +"Oh, no. The kind ladies wish us to use them now, and you should +accept the gift according to the spirit in which it is given." +Taking off his wide felt hat, he replaced it with the wool nightcap, +covered the nightcap with the handkerchief and then put on the hat +over all the rest. "And what have we here?" he continued. "A pipe? +Oh, the naughty ladies! Cigarettes?" He smelled at them gingerly, +then sneezed into a corner of the scarlet kerchief. "Matches, +shoelaces, and, by George, a cake of soap! Now, if we only had a +farmer's almanac and a flannel chest-protector, we'd be quite +complete." + +Weldon laughed. Then he beckoned to a little trooper standing beside +the nearest ant-hill. + +"Paddy," he said gravely; "these toys are excellent toys. If +anything should happen to me, I'll will them to you." + +Paddy thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his own nightcap and +dangled it by its khaki-colored tip. + +"And look at it!" he said slowly. "The spirit is willing and full of +peace; but what would I be doing with that thing, I who never had a +hat on my head till I was ten years old, let alone a cap?" + +"Wrap your feet in it, then," Carew suggested. "It's large enough +for them both. Paddy, who eats at your ant-hill?" + +The little Irishman winked knowingly. + +"Them as invites theirselves, first off. If it's you and Mr. Weldon, +so much the better for Paddy. The rum ration is doubled, the day; +knowing the habits of you both, I'm thinking I see my way to getting +six times gloriously drunk. There's beer by the hogshead, too. It'll +be a mighty Christmas dinner, the first in years I've eaten without +cooking." + +"You generally eat it raw?" Carew questioned blandly. + +"Praised be Patrick, no; but it's Paddy who has done the cooking. +This year, I am free from my pots and kettles, and can eat with the +best of them. Little Canuck dear, don't ever enlist as a cook. +Nothing spoils the stomach of you like the smell of the warming +broth." + +"You like the change, then, Paddy?" Weldon asked, as he thriftily +packed up his parcel and stowed it away in his pocket, with an eye +to the gratitude of Kruger Bobs. + +"Like, is it? I rejoice greatly and shout, as the Book bids us. It's +a man's work I'm doing now; it's with men that I am doing that work, +and it's a man who leads me on to do that work, meaning Captain +Frazer." + +"Where is the Captain now?" + +Paddy dropped down on the ground, midway between his friends and his +ant-hill. + +"Over yonder, doing the work of an honest man and a warrior." + +"That goes without saying. What now?" + +But Paddy chose to speak in metaphors. + +"He's thrown down his sword and picked up his bottle," he responded +enigmatically. + +"Not drinking?" Weldon asked incredulously. + +"No, little one; not doing, but doing by. He's administering advice +and physic to them cormyrants of Queenslanders. The Colonials are a +hard race to manage and a greedy." Paddy spoke with an accent of +extreme disfavor. + +"What have the poor Queenslanders done?" + +"Poor it is; not poor in spirit, but poor in judgment. They've +converted the top course of their dinner into the bottom course of +their breakfast, and now they're suffering according. Next time, +when their kyind officers order them up, each a little Crosse and +Blackwell plum pudding, they'll know enough to eat them up hot on a +full stomach, not bolt them down cold on top of a lone layer of +dog-bread. Man is permitted to make such errors but once in his life, +without having Providence get after him and slay him. Little +Canuck?" "Paddy?" + +"The top of the ant-hill is white with heat, and the lambie must +enter the roasting tomb. Will you and Mr. Carew eat with me?" + +"We've no intention of eating anywhere else, Paddy. We know your +cooking of old." + +"It's an honor you'll be doing me, then. And, moreover--" Paddy +hesitated, with the words sticking to his lips. + +"What now?" + +"Think you the Captain--I mean the Adjutant; but he'll always be the +Captain to me--would he take it amiss, think you, little one, if I +sent him a bit of the joint, for the sake of old times? He'll like +be eating truffled ostrich and locust sauce at the mess; but Paddy'd +like to have a hand in his Christmas dinner. It's all I can do for +him, and he's done much for me." + +"Try him and see, Paddy," Weldon advised. "If I know Captain Frazer, +he'll have nothing to-day that will please him more." + +With feasting and story-telling and the inevitable letters to wife +and sweetheart, the sunshiny day lost itself in twilight and the +twilight in the chill of night. Along the line of the blockhouses +for miles away, lights began to twinkle out from the narrow +loopholes. Throughout the camp, answering lights twinkled back at +them till the night was spotted thick with dots of yellow, winking +up at the yellow stars above. And around the camp and the +blockhouses lay the dark, measureless veldt, and the veldt was very +still. + +Stillness was not in the camp, however. Even the gluttonous +Queenslanders had recovered from their woes of the morning; and, +from end to end of the great enclosure, there was a spirit of +merrymaking born of the feast day, the dinner and the unwonted +allowance of rum. In the groups scattered about the camp fires, +tongues wagged freely of home, of boyhood, of adventures in past +years. War talk was tabooed that night. According to his custom, +Tommy ignored the present and ranged at large over the remote past +and yet remoter future. + +Carew, with the easy adaptability which marked him, was the central +figure of one of the groups where he acted as a species of +toastmaster, to direct the trend of the stories and lead the +singing. Weldon sat slightly apart, watching the firelit group +before him, while his mind trailed lazily to and fro, from home, +with its holly wreaths in the windows, to Cape Town where the +flower-boxes edging a wide veranda would be a mass of geranium +blossoms now, and where, in the shady western end, would sit a tall +girl with hair the color of the yellow flame. Strangely enough, to +his honest, straightforward mind it never occurred to doubt that she +was thinking of him, sending a Christmas wish in his direction. More +than once she had given proof of her liking for him, her interest in +his concerns. Her blue eyes had met his eyes steadily, kindly. +Weldon had certain old-fashioned notions of womanhood which not all +of his social life had been able to beat out of him. Far back in his +boyhood, his mother, still a social leader at home, had told him it +was unmanly to flirt. A good and loyal woman would have no share in +flirtation; women of the other sort could have no share in his life. +Weldon was no Galahad. He had danced and dined with many women, had +given sympathy to some, chaff to others; nevertheless, his relations +with them had been curiously direct and simple. Quite unconsciously +to himself, his mother's code had become ingrained in the very fibre +of his being. And now he was ready to stand or fall by his judgment +that Ethel Dent, Cooee as he called her in his secret heart, was as +good and loyal as a woman could be. The future seemed to him so +obvious that he made no effort to forecast it. He was content to +wait. + +"Christmas is nearly over, Weldon." + +He roused himself abruptly, as Captain Frazer dropped down at his +side. + +"Yes; but the revel will outlast the day," he answered, laughing. +"Tommy is in his glory now, and it will take more than taps to make +him subside." + +"Perhaps. He has rioted most joyously. Christmas has been no empty +mockery to him." Weldon's quick ear detected a ring of melancholy in +the Captain's voice. + +"Has it to you?" + +The Captain sat silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the winking +fires. + +"Not really. Of course, we all have been a bit homesick, and I can +see no shame in confessing it. Besides, after one gets out of his +windsor-tie stage of life, these especial holidays seem to mark time +so. One thinks back to this time, last year; and one has to wonder a +bit where he will be, a year from now. A good deal can happen in a +year." + +"For better, or for worse," Weldon added. + +The words caught the Captain's ear. + +"Yes, for better or for worse," he repeated; "in sickness and in +health. A year is a long time. Tell me, have you heard lately from +Miss Dent?" + +Long afterwards, the question came back to Weldon, with the obvious +association of ideas. Now he answered, with perfect unconcern,-- + +"Not for three or four weeks." + +"I have heard since you, then. She wrote, last week, and sent +greeting to you and Mr. Carew." + +"Thank you. Give mine back to her; that is, if you are writing." + +"I shall write, to-night," the Captain said briefly. + +"Then please send her my wishes for Christmas and New Year's both. +You might also remind her to write to me. She writes wonderfully +good letters." Turning his eyes from the fire, the Captain watched +him steadily for a moment. Unconscious of his companion's gaze, +Weldon was staring out across the camp, his lips framed to a +noiseless whistling, his face full of dreamy content. The Captain +studied the happy, resolute young face, drew a deep breath and then +turned to the fire once more. + +"Yes," he assented. "But you would know that, from hearing her +talk." + +Suddenly, Weldon's lips straightened, and he faced the Captain +directly. + +"I like Miss Dent," he said frankly. "Of course, you know that. But, +moreover, I have always felt I owed her a debt of gratitude for +introducing me to you. I know one doesn't usually say such things, +Captain Frazer," he laughed, in sudden boyish embarrassment; "but it +is a little different on Christmas night, you know. Next year, we +may be miles apart, and so, if you don't mind, I'd like to say that +you have been wonderfully good to me, this year, and that I +appreciate it." + +Captain Frazer took the outstretched hand, slim, but hard now, and a +bit stubby about the nails. + +"Thank you, Weldon," he answered. "This may be our only Christmas +together, and I am glad you told me." + +The silence about them was broken by the voices of the soldiers +singing around the camp fires and by the bagpipes playing somewhere +across the distance. Then, after a little, they fell to talking of +other things, with the natural antipathy of healthy men to any +recurrence of a momentary outburst of sentiment. + +Around them, the fires flared and flamed across the darkness; beyond +them, the veldt stretched away, sinister, mysterious; and from above +the stars twinkled down upon them, smiling a Christmas blessing +alike on those who were doomed to glory and those who were doomed to +death. For an instant, the sudden pause in the singing and laughter +seemed typical of the short, sudden pause in their active lives. +Then, as the Captain rose, the singing broke out once more, Carew's +voice leading. + +"Good-night, Weldon. I must go back to my quarters." + +"And to your letters?" + +"Yes, to my letters. And may next Christmas be good to us both!" + +Weldon rose and saluted, then stood looking after his companion as +he walked away, head and shoulders erect and his lips smiling +slightly, as if in anticipation of the task before him. And, +meanwhile, from the fire near by came the lusty chorus,-- + + "A little brown cot, a shady green spot, + No happier home I find. + My heart's fairly gone, for I love only one, + She's the gi-irl I le-eft behind." + +The voices, rollicking even in their sentimentality, dropped away +into silence; the fire flared up and then suddenly died away into +darkness. But, even in the darkness, Weldon could see the dim +outline of the Captain's figure, moving steadily forward along his +self-appointed way. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + + +Lord Kitchener, one night in early February, was sitting on the apex +of a vast triangle in the northern end of the Orange River Colony. +Two sides of the triangle were made up of long lines of blockhouses, +strung on a chain of barbed-wire fencing. The blockhouses were of +loop-holed stone or iron with iron roofs, and they were separated +from each other by only a few hundred yards. The barbed-wire chain +which strung together these zigzag lines was five strands wide, and +it was edged with a five-foot trench and now and then with an +additional length of stone wall. Beyond the fences were the railroad +lines, and up and down over the tracks armored trains carrying +search-lights were running to and fro, to shed all possible light +upon the fences and upon the enclosure beyond. The third side of the +triangle consisted of an infinite number of men in khaki, and its +density varied entirely according to its position. At first, it +opened out to a thin line of troopers scattered over the arc of an +immense circle; then it drew in until an army stood in fighting +array straight across the veldt from Heilbron to Kroonstad. And +Wolvehoek was the apex of the triangle. + +Experience had taught the master brain of the British army that it +was useless longer to chase De Wet up and down over the face of the +earth. The Boer general was familiar with every crack and cranny of +that earth. He knew where to hide, where to dodge, where to scurry +away as fast as his convoy train could bear him company. Behind him, +plucky, but totally in ignorance of the natural advantages of the +country, toiled and perspired and skirmished the British army. +Horses were exhausted, men were killed and supply wagons were +captured, all to little or no purpose. If the quarry could not be +taken by direct pursuit, it was needful to have recourse to the +methods of the ranch. Pursuit failing, it was time for a round-up. + +To this end, the Orange River Colony had been marked off into +sections by the rows of blockhouses strung upon barbed wire. Drive +after drive had been made into these enclosures; and every drive had +brought its bag of game. But still the general himself had eluded +them. Early in February, however, a giant drive had been planned, +directed away from the enclosure in order that, once De Wet took +refuge in his usual trick of doubling back upon his pursuers, he +should find himself caught in the open trap. And, secure in the +ultimate success of his plan, Lord Kitchener waited at Wolvehoek in +expectation of its end. + +The drive had been made, De Wet had doubled, and now the base of the +triangle was flowing in upon him, fully confident of success at +last. And the base was in part made up of the South African Light +Horse, and Carew and Weldon were of that Horse, and they rejoiced +accordingly. + +Nightfall of the sixth found the quarry well inside the triangle, +and the South African Light Horse drawn up in a straight line +running westward from Lindley. The officers slept in their boots, +that night, and every trooper held himself tense in his blankets, +ready to cease snoring at an instant's notice. And far away to the +northward, the moving search-lights carved the frosty darkness with +their blinding cones of light. + +Weldon was ordered out on picket duty, that night. All day long, he +had ridden hard, until even the zeal of Piggie had begun to flag. +Nevertheless, as the broad stripe of yellow reluctantly died out of +the western sky, his excited brain denied to his tired muscles the +sleep which they demanded. Accordingly, it was a relief when his +orders came, and he found himself advancing cautiously out into the +shadowy veldt. + +Contrary to his usual mood when on picket, Weldon had no sense of +loneliness, that night. Reaching away from him on either hand was +the huge enclosing wall of humanity, pacing to and fro on picket +duty, guarding the blockhouses, patrolling the wire fences between. +Every man was alert to his duty; every nerve was taut with the +consciousness that somewhere within the cordon was the leader who +heretofore had escaped them, that each man was a link forged in the +endless chain which was stretched around the invisible enemy. And, +meanwhile, the starless sky and the waiting chain were equally +silent and equally freighted with mystery. And the future seemed +full of portent and very near. + +Then, as the midnight hour swung past him, Weldon heard the rustle +of a quiet footfall. It was Captain Frazer's voice that answered his +challenge. + +"I was looking for you, Weldon," he added. + +"For anything especial?" + +"No. I felt restless and couldn't sleep, so I thought I would go the +round of the pickets. They said you were out here. Where is Carew?" + +"In my sleeping-bag. I don't encourage him for a neighbor just now. +He draws too much fire." + +The Captain laughed softly. + +"He is an unlucky beggar. Eight, nine, how many times is it that he +has been hit? He ought to engage a private nurse." + +"He has." And Weldon explained the little scene at the door of the +hospital tent. + +"Happy fellow! He deserves her, though. But it is an ideal +combination, that of nurse and soldier," the Captain answered +lightly. Then he asked, "What sort of a day have you had?" + +"Rousing. Now the question is: what sort of a night are we going to +have?" + +"The night of our lives, I suspect," the Captain replied, still in +the low tone in which all their talk had been made. "The orders are +to close in at daylight, and work the game up towards Wolvehoek; +but, if I know anything at all of De Wet, he won't wait till +daylight." + +"You think he will fight?" + +"If he does, it will be a fight to the finish," the Captain said +gravely. + +Weldon's grip tightened on his rifle. + +"When will it come?" + +"Heaven only knows. Probably just before light. He will take this +end of things, on account of avoiding the railroads and--" + +Weldon's hand shut on his arm. + +"Hush! What's that?" + +Swiftly the Captain's gravity vanished, and he laughed. + +"By George, here they are!" he exclaimed. + +From the veldt to the northward, there came a confused din of +rushing, trampling feet; a cloud of dust, lifted on the night +breeze, swept down upon them; and then a herd of stampeding cattle +dashed madly past, noses to earth and tails lashing in furious fear. +An instant later, the darkness to the left was shattered by dots of +light, and the air snapped with the double crack of Mauser rifles. +Far to the northward, though muffled by distance, there was more +firing, and yet more; and ever the moving searchlights carved their +way to and fro through the inky night. + +Like a dog on the scent and ready for the plunge, Captain Frazer had +straightened to the full of his height and stood tense, waiting an +instant to measure the scope of the coming fight. + +"It's a row, sure enough; and thank God, I'm in it!" he said quietly +then. "Come back to the line, Weldon. There'll be work for us all, +in a few minutes." + +Even as he spoke, and while they were hurrying back to the squadron, +a random shot pierced the darkness just before them, and a bullet +whirred close above their heads. Another shot tossed up a spray of +dust at their feet, and a third fell full in the tent where Carew +was swiftly tightening his belts and assuring himself that his +bandoliers were full. + +They found the camp already humming like a hive of angry bees. A +small matter of forty miles a day counted for nothing to men wakened +from heavy sleep to face the firing of an invisible foe. There was +no need of the murmured report that De Wet had bidden his followers +break through the British chain wherever its links were weakest. +Instinctively each man threw himself into fighting array, convinced +that the present minute marked the climax of the past days. + +And, meanwhile, the limitless darkness shut down over the determined +cordon of British men facing steadily inward towards the foe which +they could not see; over the scattered knots of Boer horsemen, +secure in their full knowledge of every yard of the ground, riding +forward to fight their way through the chain into the veldt beyond. +And, far to the northward, De Wet was lurking in shadow long enough +to cut the wires and then ride away with his trio of faithful +followers. + +To Weldon, fresh from the darkness and silence of the open veldt, it +seemed as if, of a sudden, the frosty night were tattered into +shreds. As the fight waxed hot about him, he lost all memory of the +intermediate stages. At one instant, all had been still and dim; at +another, the air before him was thick with vivid rifle flashes, his +ears were full of the strident din of flying bullets, of shouting +men, of squealing, moaning horses. For a time, he could see nothing +of the enemy but the flashing dots of fire. Then the dots drew +nearer, closed up, and the din was increased by the rattle of fixing +bayonets, by the dull, sucking sound of steel prodded into soft +masses, and by the thud of falling bodies. And always from the outer +circle the pitiless rain of bullets came splashing down upon them, +striking impartially on friend and on foe. + +Side by side in the foremost rank, Weldon and Carew were fighting +like tigers. Carew's cheek was gashed by a passing bullet, and +Weldon's coat showed dark and wet over his left shoulder; but +neither man was conscious of pain, or of fear, or of anything else +than a surly determination to check the maddening rush before them. +Carew was slashing about him with all the strength of arm and +bayonet; but Weldon, disdaining his bayonet, was firing with a +steady aim which sent one man and then another to join the heap on +the ground at his feet. + +A second bullet grazed his wrist, and a horseman swept down upon +him. For an instant, he wavered. Then he straightened his shoulders +and took careful aim. From ten feet away, he had heard a ringing +order, and the order had been given, not in the voice of his own +captain, but in that of Captain Frazer who, as ranking officer, had +taken command of the fight into which chance had led him. Weldon's +every nerve answered to the tonic of that voice. Not since +Vlaakfontein had he been under its command. Nevertheless, the old +spell was upon him, and he responded to its call. An instant before, +the rush towards him had seemed indomitable. Those furious, fighting +horsemen could not be stayed in their course. Now he braced himself +for the shock of their coming, while tired hand and blurring eye +roused themselves to do the bidding of his brain. He was dimly aware +that Paddy had struggled forward to his other side and, shoulder to +shoulder with him, was helping to beat back the iron-like force +pressing down upon them. Then, with the keen grasp of trifling +detail which often marks the supreme moment of mental exhaustion, he +became conscious that the hairy tail which brushed across his face +was unduly coarse and tangled, while a sudden cheer from around him +told that the Boers were turning in flight. + +Dazed, he drew his hand across his face, and stared wonderingly at +the scarlet drops on his fingers. Then he turned and looked down at +Paddy with a whimsical, questioning smile. Paddy repeated his query. + +"Are you hurt, little one?" he demanded, for the second time, as he +shook Weldon's arm. + +Weldon steadied at the touch. + +"No; only scratched a bit. It is nothing to last at all. Are you all +right?" + +Paddy shut his hand over a shattered finger. + +"Glory be! And the snakes of Boers is wriggling off to their holes. +And now, where's the Captain?" + +They found him a little apart from the line, slightly to the front +and close beside a scattered heap of bearded men. His face was white +and the lines of his face were rigid and drawn; but he hailed them +just as he always had been used to do. + +"My luck has changed," he added quietly. "They have taken my leg, +this time. Still, it's not so very painful. I'll fill my pipe first, +and then will you two fellows help me back, till we can find an +ambulance?" + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + + +In a quiet corner of the crowded hospital at Johannesburg, one +narrow bed was screened away from its neighbors. Beside the bed sat +Ethel Dent, and Weldon leaned against the wall beyond. Both of them +were smiling bravely down into the dark-fringed blue eyes which met +their eyes with a steady wishfulness. With the end so plain in +sight, why keep up the pretence of being blind to its approach? + +An operation had been the final chance, and the chance had failed. +Out from the stupor of ether, out from the hours of bewildering +pain, Captain Frazer had come back to an interval of full +consciousness, of fuller knowledge that, for him, this painless +interval was but the prelude to the final painless sleep. +Nevertheless, the man who had helped other men to die unflinchingly +was facing death with a grave, unflinching smile, albeit life to him +was good and full of promise. The interval was short. He would pass +through it in manlike fashion, and, meanwhile, give thanks that +beside his bed sat the one woman in whom his whole future so long +had centered. + +The slow moments passed by, unheeded. It was an hour since the +surgeons had gone away; it was nearly an hour since Alice Mellen had +followed the surgeons. Instinctively she realized that her place was +otherwhere. There was no need now for skilled nurses. Ethel could do +all the little which would be required, and it was Ethel's right to +stay. + +Since Alice had left them, no word had been spoken. The Captain had +little strength for words as yet. It was taking all his energy and +courage to face the truth and to accept it. Only an hour before, his +crippled career had seemed to him unbearable. Now, as he lay with +his eyes fixed on the girl beside him, he realized how much of +potential sweetness that dreary alternative had held. And yet, Fate +had drawn him into the battle, and it was something that he had met +Fate bravely and in the foremost rank. So far, he had never funked a +fight; if it took his last bit of strength, he would go pluckily +through this last, worse fight which he was destined to face. He +stirred slightly, and shut his teeth on his lower lip; but his eyes +never dropped from Ethel's face. From the farther side of the bed, +Weldon, too, was watching Ethel. If he lived to full fivescore +years, he could never forget her face as he had met her at the +hospital door, that morning. Exhausted with the excitement of the +battle, stiff with his half-dressed wounds, soiled and untidy and +haggard, he had paused beside the ambulance while the attendants had +lifted the stretcher and borne the Captain up the low flight of +steps. Then, like a man in a dream, he had followed along behind +them until, on the very threshold, he had raised his heavy eyes to +see Ethel standing before him, a broad shaft of sunshine pouring +down upon her to rest in the locks of sunshiny hair which straggled +out from beneath her crisp white cap. + +"Cooee!" he said huskily, as he took her hand. Then, for the first +time in all those terrible hours since the battle, his lips had +quivered, and two big, boyish tears had rolled out across his +cheeks. + +Already the fight seemed to him to be months old. From the first, it +had been the Captain's wish that Weldon should go with him to the +hospital, and Weldon would have allowed no other man to go in his +place. Wounded and weak from loss of blood, nevertheless he forgot +his own weakness as he saw the leg, shattered by two bullets, +explosive bullets such as are denied to warfare of any but barbarous +nations. Young though he was, Weldon had seen many a man wounded +before now. He was not slow to realize the nature of the +alternatives which lay before the man who was at once his hero and +his friend. Mercifully, he had as yet no knowledge how soon the one +alternative must be taken from him. + +The case was too grave a one for the surgeons of the field hospital. +In after years, that ambulance journey into Kroonstad seemed branded +upon Weldon's memory: the baking heat of the February sun, the +interminable miles of dusty road stretching away between other +interminable miles of grassy veldt, scarred and seamed here and +there with ridges of naked rock. And at last the ambulance had +jogged into Kroonstad, only to find that no help lay in the hospital +there, that the journey must be dragged onward through a night ride +to Johannesburg. + +If the jolting, crawling ambulance had been bad, the jarring train +was infinitely worse. The Captain made no complaints; he was +grateful for every slight attention; he even forced himself to joke +a little now and then. Nevertheless, Weldon, sitting beside him and +occasionally laying his own fingers across the steady hand on the +blanket, was maddened by the noise of the engine, by the ceaseless +thud, thud as the wheels took every new rail, by the roar, and the +rush, and the dust which filtered in upon them. There was nothing he +could do. He merely sat there beside his friend, and thought. +Occasionally, he thought of Ethel; but, for the most part, his mind +was on the man before him, the man whose active career all at once +had been cut in two. Now and then he thought of the one who had +chosen to fire those bullets, taboo of all but the most brutal +warfare. At such times, he rose and fell to pacing restlessly up and +down the car. Then he controlled himself and resumed his seat. + +Moment by moment, almost second by second, the dreary night had worn +away. It was full morning when the train had halted inside the +familiar station. After his vigil, the healthy stir of the streets +appeared to Weldon like the confused picture of a dream, and it had +been like a man in a dream that he had been driven away to the +hospital. Then, on the steps, he had seen Ethel, and the dream had +been shattered, giving way, for the instant, to the perfect +happiness of reality. + +But the surgeons at Johannesburg had shaken their heads. The delay, +although unavoidable, had been full of danger. One only chance +remained, and they would take that chance. Weldon had lingered until +he was ordered away; then, with Ethel beside him, he had gone to +find a doctor who could dress his own wounds and make him fit to +face the ordeal which he knew was awaiting him. For one short +moment, he had felt Ethel's hands busy about his shoulder and head +and wrist, had rejoiced in the quiet strength of their soothing +touch. For another moment, their eyes had met; but no word had been +spoken between them. Then Alice had come to them, bringing the +surgeon's verdict. That had been an hour before. Now they still were +there, watching the slow approach of the inevitable summons. + +Slowly the day waxed--and waned. For the waning life, there was no +interval of waxing. Slowly, steadily, by infinitesimal degrees, Leo +Frazer was sinking down into the Valley of the Shadow. Once the head +surgeon had stepped behind the screens and bent over the bed. Only +Ethel had seen the brief contraction of his brows; but no one of +them was deceived by his cheery words of parting. And still the blue +eyes rested upon Ethel, as if seeking to gain from her the answer to +some unspoken question, as if begging her to share with him some +fraction of her quiet strength. Now and then Ethel wondered at her +own quiet. This was the second week of her promised month with her +cousin; but it was the first time she had come face to face with +death, the first time, too, that her work had taken on any hint of +personality. Now, suddenly confronted with these three, Death and +the two men who, during the past fourteen months, had played so +active parts in her life, she was surprised to find that she faced +them steadily and in silence. As yet, she felt no wish to make any +moan. That would come later, when her nerves had relaxed a little +from the stretching strain. And, meanwhile, as she sat watching the +face on the pillow, grieving for the waning life, now and then she +raised her eyes to the other face on the opposite side of the bed, +and told herself that Fate, harsh as it was, was yet not altogether +unpitying. Although wounded and worn and sick at heart, Weldon was +with her, and intensely alive. + +"Ethel!" + +Bending forward, she laid her strong, firm hand upon the hand of the +Captain, noting, as she did so, that the finger tips were cold to +her own warm touch. + +"Yes?" she said gently. + +"You are here? It troubles me to see. Stay with me to the end, +Ethel. It won't be so very long." + +She bowed her head; but the answer came firmly. + +"I will stay." + +There was a short silence. Then, gathering together all his +strength, the Captain went on quite steadily,-- + +"It won't be so very long, Ethel. I am sorry. I liked to live. I +have had a good time, and I had no idea that my good times were so +nearly over. Not that it would have made much difference, though. +And yet, when one comes to the end, all of a sudden, one finds a +great many things that are left unfinished." + +She made no attempt to answer. + +Gently he urged the final words upon her attention. + +"There are always so many things left unfinished," he repeated. + +"Yes," she said faintly. + +Slowly, as if its weight dragged sorely upon his failing strength, +he raised her hand to the pillow and rested his cheek upon it. + +"Don't cry, Ethel," he said then. "Of course, if I had lived, it +might have meant so much to us both." + +Involuntarily she caught her breath and made a swift gesture, as if +to withdraw her hand. Then, with a hasty glance at Weldon, leaning +against the opposite wall, she controlled herself and allowed her +hand to rest where it was. + +"It would have meant so much to all of us, Captain Frazer." + +"Perhaps. But to you and me--Ethel, I can't go out of life and give +you up!" Pitifully, longingly, the blue eyes stared up at her face +through the growing shadows of waning day and waning life. +Longingly, although the questioning look had left them. In its place +was an infinite, contented love, an absolute trust. + +The girl nerved herself to meet his eyes. Then she drew her own eyes +away, to give another hasty, appealing glance up into Weldon's +paling face. For him, as for her, the moment was all unexpected. For +him, as for her, there was need of all the reserve strength in life +to go through it honorably and without flinching. + +Up to that very hour, no thought of Leo Frazer's love had crossed +the mind of Ethel Dent. They had been friends, good comrades, +meeting often and always with much pleasure. She had acknowledged to +herself, long since, that he was a man among men; she honored him, +admired him, cared for him as she might have cared for an only +brother. Beyond that, she could not go. Moreover, it had never +occurred to her that Captain Frazer could mistake her attitude to +himself, could differentiate her light, bright cordiality from the +cordiality she showed to other men. When she had met him first, she +had been a mere girl in character and experience; love had had scant +place in her girlish dreams. Later, Weldon had come into her life. +His coming had changed many things for her; but it had made no +change in her attitude to the Captain. She was now, as always, his +loyal, admiring friend, no less, no more. She had supposed that he +had felt the same loyal friendship for her. Too late, she realized +her mistake. + +"You must have known it all, Ethel," the Captain was saying +steadily; "how my whole life has seemed to go into yours. I have +never told you. I was sure you knew it, without any telling, and I +have been waiting until the war was over, before asking you to go +home with me, as my wife. The--" he caught his breath sharply, "the +war is over for me now, dearest. I can't ask you to go home with me; +but--Tell me, Ethel, I have not been mistaken, all these months? You +have cared for me, as I have cared for you?" The last words came out +with the roundness of tone he had used in health; but there was a +weary drag to the hand that drew her hand still nearer to his cheek. +Ethel faltered. Then, soldier-like, she braced herself to fight to a +finish. It was not her fault that the man had mistaken her friendly, +cordial liking for something deeper, infinitely more lasting. She +had never consciously played with him, never sought to win his love. +Blame there was none; it was all only a mistake, albeit a terrible +one. Nevertheless-- + +Desperately she glanced up from the blue eyes, still so wishfully +fixed upon her own, up to the drawn, white face of the haggard man +on the farther side of the bed. In that instant, the girl fought +madly with herself. Then her eyes dropped back to the bed once more. +Eternity and time; a final short, comforting word to the one, a long +explanation to the other. The mistake, if mistake there were, had +been all of her doing. Bravely she would take the bitter +consequences. Captain Frazer's day was passing fast. The night +remained for her talk with Weldon. Her eyes dropped back to the bed, +and her hand yielded itself to the pressure of the ice-cold fingers. + +"Yes," she said slowly and so faintly that Weldon, standing +breathless, could scarcely hear the words; "I have cared for you, as +you have cared for me." + +The fingers tightened over her hand; but the lids drooped heavily +above the dark blue eyes. + +"Dearest--girl." Then, smiling to himself, Captain Leo Frazer fell +asleep. The next moment counted itself out by slow seconds. Then +Ethel raised her head and turned to smile drearily up at Weldon. + +Instead, she found herself smiling up at an empty wall. Harvard +Weldon had vanished and had left for her no word of farewell. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + + +Up Commissioner Street and down Commissioner Street and around and +around Market Square tramped a haggard man in khaki who surveyed all +things with dull, unseeing eyes. On his cheek, an inch or so above +his stubbly beard, was a wide cross of plaster, and his left wrist +wore a narrow bandage. He walked with quick, nervous strides; yet +every now and then he halted to rest for a moment. Then he hurried +on again, as if pursued by some unseen, but malignant foe. + +Twice he turned northward and paused before the hospital, staring +irresolutely up at the lighted windows. Then, facing about abruptly, +he moved on, swiftly, but with the mechanical tread of a man in a +dream. Once he found himself resting on the steps of the Jewish +synagogue. The next time he roused himself to take note of his +surroundings, he was at the Berea Estate, following Hospital Hill +straight to the eastward. It was then that he had turned about and +faced back to the hospital. A scant half-dozen hours before, that +hospital had held what was all the world to him. Now, without +warning, that all had proved to be naught. + +The blow had come crashing upon him, straight between the eyes and +so suddenly that there had been no time for him to brace himself to +meet it. From the moment of his facing Ethel in the doorway of the +hospital, that noon, he had been sure that the talk which he would +have with her, that evening, could bring but the one ending. At +sight of the soiled and haggard man before her, her blue eyes had +lighted with something far more than pleased surprise. His appearing +had been quite unexpected; her meeting with him had been the naked +impulse of her girlish heart. And, all that endless day, her grief +for the Captain had in no way hidden her evident pleasure in his own +presence. And then, all at once, had come the end, unexpected and +hence doubly crushing. His young, newborn happiness was as little +strong to bear the blow as were his exhausted body and his shattered +nerve. Like a wild beast wounded to the death, he had crept silently +away, to go through his agony, unseen. + +Standing under the fierce glare of the electric light by the +hospital gate, his appearance would wellnigh have baffled the +recognition of his mother. Soiled and stained and tattered, his head +sunk between his shoulders, he looked a feeble man of middle years. +Dark shadows lay around his heavy gray eyes, and the corners of his +mouth drooped pitifully. And, somewhere inside that building, was +the girl who had snatched away from him what was dearer than life +itself. For six long months she had been the incentive to all of his +best work; it had been her influence which finally had led him to +come back into the firing line; it had been in the hope for the +future, a hope growing less and less vague as the months passed by, +that he had been willing and glad to prolong his stay through one +more torrid African summer. And to what end? + +Strange to say, it never once occurred to him to try to win her love +now, after all that bad passed. Still less did it occur to him to +doubt the truth of her final words to the Captain. Weldon had missed +the look of appealing anguish in the blue eyes which she had lifted +to his; but he had heard the low, steady voice, had seen the +pressure of the living fingers answer to the slight movement of the +hand already growing cold. He had heard, and seen. It was enough. +Always he had believed implicitly in Ethel's truth. There was no +reason he should distrust her now. It was only that he had been an +egregious ass to think that he could win her love, in the face of a +man like Captain Leo Frazer. With a mighty effort, he straightened +his shoulders, faced the wing where he knew the Captain would now be +lying and reverently removed his hat. Then, for one last time, his +eyes swept over the building and, turning away, he crawled off +towards the railway station. + +And, meanwhile, alone in a room behind one of those brightly-lighted +windows, a girl sat huddled together, her crossed arms on her knees +and her face buried in her arms, while she wailed to herself over +and over again,-- + +"He might have waited! He might have waited! My God in heaven, what +have I done? But at least he might have waited!" + +A commissariat train was leaving Johannesburg at two o'clock the +next morning. His pass in his hand, Weldon clambered drearily on the +train for the long ride back to Kroonstad. Motion of any kind was +better than remaining longer in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, the +jolting of the train was wellnigh unbearable. His shoulder throbbed, +and the dull pain in his head was maddening. He had passed the stage +of weariness, however, where one is conscious of exhaustion. An +ever-tightening strain was upon him. He could not rest now; he must +go on, and on, and on, faster and ever faster, until at last +something should snap and quiet perforce should overtake him. + +Early dawn found him at Kroonstad. Sleep had been impossible for +him; he had no appetite for food, and it took an ever-increasing +effort for him to pull himself together. Like a man mounting a +steep, pathless hill, he tried to drag himself up above the +consciousness of his aching head and throbbing wounds; but it was +not to be done. At the station he halted irresolutely. Then of a +sudden he faced towards the great hospital tent. + +"I want something to steady me a bit," he said briefly to the first +doctor he met there. "I have two or three scratches, and I am +feeling fagged. Give me something to help me get a grip on myself +again, for I can't spend time to be ill." + +The doctor remonstrated; but Weldon's answer was peremptory. + +"I tell you, I can't stop. Give me something and let me go. I've +work at Lindley that must be done, and a convoy leaves in an hour." + +An hour later he was trudging over the veldt in the direction of +Lindley. Lindley was forty miles away; the roads were dusty, and the +sun of early February struck down upon him with the heat of a +belated summer. Nevertheless, at Lindley was his squadron, and with +his squadron would be work. Never in all his past life had Weldon +known this imperative need for work. In it now, and in its +accompanying excitement and in its inevitable risk, would lie his +ultimate salvation. For him, the future held but one plain duty, and +that duty was to forget. + +The experienced eye of the doctor had told him that the gaunt +trooper was a sick man; it had also told him that the trooper's +determination would outweigh his sickness, at least for the present +crisis. He made no effort to penetrate the cause of that +determination. He merely yielded to it. A doctor less wise would +have ordered Weldon into bed. This one saw further. He knew that a +delicately adjusted machine often receives its worst damage from the +friction needed to stop the whirring wheels. Better to wait and let +them run down, untouched. + +The forty miles from Kroonstad to Lindley were reducing themselves +from a geographical fact to a matter of physical and mental anguish. +There had been no rain for days, and under the burning sun, the +dusty veldt seemed dancing up and down before Weldon's tired, +feverish eyes. Now he passed through a stretch of bare and +burned-out sand; now he tramped over patches of tall dry grass; now he +plodded wearily around a heap of smooth black stones. Brick-red +ant-hills higher than his knees dotted themselves over the veldt, their +shell-like surface shielding a crowded insect colony within. +Ant-bear holes lurked unseen in his pathway, tripping his heedless +steps; and an occasional partridge went whirring upward, making him +start aside in causeless terror at the unwonted sound. And over it +all rested the glaring, shimmering, blinding light, laden with +myriad particles of dazzling red-brown dust. Later still, the +red-brown color vanished, and he walked for weary leagues over the +fire-blackened veldt where the black rocks offered no contrast to the +eye, and where the air was heavy with ashes caught up and scattered +by the light breeze which heralded the coming night. And it was all +so lonely, so hostile, so limitless. But no more lonely and hostile +and limitless than the desolate future which stretched away and away +before his gaze. + +As yet he dared not trust his mind to rest too much upon the past. +The future demanded his whole attention. It was a far cry for him +from the present up to his limit of threescore years and ten. Still, +he would not funk it now. That was the part of a sneak. Now, as +always, he would stand by his young resolution to play out the game, +to abide by the rules and to take the consequences. Nevertheless, it +would be weary work to play out the game to its end, when the end +held nothing for him in its keeping. His mind trailed off upon all +sorts or vague corollaries scarcely connected with the fact. He +recalled it with a jerk. + +The Captain was dead. Ethel had loved the Captain. She had told the +Captain of her love. As consequence, she could not love himself, +Harvard Weldon. But he loved her. He had loved her for thirteen +months and twenty-one days. Carefully he reckoned up the time; then, +to make sure, he counted it off upon his fingers. Yes, he had loved +her ever since that first lunch on the steamer, when she had snubbed +him so roundly. He did not know it then. Looking backward, he knew +it now. And there had been Cape Town, and Johannesburg, and Cape +Town again. He stumbled into the open mouth of an ant-bear's hole +and came down with a crash, full upon his wounded shoulder. Strange +that his step should be so uncertain! Strange that he should feel so +little inclination to swear! As he picked himself up, he wondered +vaguely whether his pipe would be refreshing; but his wonder +stopped, impotent to lead his dangling hand in the direction of his +pocket. Then his mind took up its interrupted story, its record of +brief, categorical facts. + +He had meant to go home, that winter. Instead, Ethel had fanned the +flame of his desire to go back to the front. He had left her, one +evening, to pass a sleepless night, and, the next morning, to take +himself out to enlist for another six months of service. The six +months were nearly ended. Only three weeks remained. And then? +Nothing. + +The second night found him still far from Lindley. He had plodded on +mechanically, stumbling often, but halting never, while his mind +went whirling on and on, over and over the same old questions. His +lips were feverish, and his eyes burned hotly, so it was almost with +a sense of relief that he greeted the swift chill which followed the +dropping of the sun. Over his head, the great arch of the sky shaded +from east to west through every tint of purple and blue and +turquoise and emerald-green, down to the golden band of the +afterglow. Then the stars began to dot the purple, their tiny points +of light serving only to emphasize its darkness, until the full moon +swept up across the heavens, throwing its mystic silver light over +all the land and adding tenfold to the empty loneliness of the +veldt. Sleep was out of the question. He could only snuggle more +closely into his blankets and wait for morning with what grace he +could. The stopping of his physical action only increased the +swiftness of his swirling thoughts which chased each other round and +round in circling eddies about one fixed point. That point was +Ethel. + +Across the veldt at his left hand, he had watched the chain of +blockhouses which lay along the country between Kroonstad and +Lindley. Their squat outlines and the shining blue of their +corrugated iron roofs had caught his wandering attention, held it, +pinned it to other associations with those same blockhouses and, of +a sudden, had brought him to a full realization that griefs did not +come singly. He had left Johannesburg, to face a future apart from +Ethel. He was coming back to Lindley, to face a future bereft of the +Captain. + +It was full noon, the next day, when the camp came into view. +Leaving the convoy to follow in his wake, he headed straight for the +rise where he had so often sat with Carew and gossiped of all things +under the light of the sun. Then, as the round tents lay under his +eyes like rows of dots punched into relief above the surface of the +plain, he sank down on the coarse, parched grass and hid his eyes in +his shaking hands. Yet even then the pitiless circle of tragic +thoughts refused to stop their ceaseless round. + +He roused himself at a touch on his arm. Kruger Bobs, at a distance, +was eying him with a look of chastened welcome; but Carew stood +beside him, one thin, sun-tanned hand on Weldon's shoulder. + +"It's all right, old man," he was saying. "Don't try to tell me +anything about it. Kruger Bobs saw you coming, and we rode out to +meet you. Come in and rest. You look utterly done up." + +Half way back to the camp, Carew spoke again; but it was only once. + +"I told the fellows you were coming, and that you would be tired. +They will keep out of your way, till you have had time to rest up a +bit. Paddy is waiting to look out for you; but you needn't worry. He +knows when to hold his tongue. If you need anything, or if you care +to talk, send him out to look for me. Meanwhile, you need some +rest." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + + +"For God's sake, Weldon, how long is this going to last?" + +Weldon raised his eyes from the seven-weeks-old Times in his hand, +and looked at Carew in surprise. + +"What last?" he questioned blankly. + +Carew sprang to his feet and began to pace up and down with +impatient, nervous steps. + +"This. Everything," he said. + +Weldon's smile, though it went no deeper than his lips, was half +sarcastic, wholly sad. + +"Specify," he advised languidly. "My mind can't grasp your +generalities." + +Carew took a few more turns. Then he came back to Weldon's side. + +"It's this way, Harvey," he said slowly, for the moment lapsing into +the name by which he had called his friend in their childhood; +"since you came back from Johannesburg, you've not been the same +man. What has done it?" + +Weldon's lips shut with a tightness which curled the corners +downward. Then, as he looked into the questioning eyes and anxious +face of his companion, his own eyes softened, and he changed his +mind in regard to keeping silence. + +"It was a hard journey," he said evasively, yet with a kindly accent +to the words. "Such days take it out of a man, Carew. I shall brace +up in time." + +Carew shook his head. + +"That is just what you must not do. You have braced too long, as it +is. Your wounds were nothing but scratches. They healed up easily +enough, and you say, yourself, that they don't trouble you; but you +look--" + +"Well?" "As if things had ended for you," Carew blurted out +desperately. + +Slowly, wearily, Weldon lifted his eyes to his friend's face. + +"Well, they have," he said, with an intonation of dreary finality. + +"Rot!" Carew observed profanely. "Look here, Weldon, you've no +business to funk in this fashion. It's not like you, either." + +The word stung Weldon. He scrambled to his feet and stood to +attention. + +"Carew, no other man could say that to me," he said slowly. + +Carew maintained his ground. + +"No other man cares for you as I do, Harvey. We've been like +brothers, and I have been too proud of your record to be willing to +sit by, quiet, and see you spoil the last round of the game. There +is too much at stake." Weldon raised his brows. + +"What is at stake?" he asked coldly. + +"Your whole army record. Your manhood. Your--" Carew hesitated; then +he nerved himself to speak out plainly; "your love for Miss Dent." + +Weldon shut his teeth and drew in his breath between them, while the +dark red blood rushed across his face, and then died away, to leave +in its place a grayish pallor. He put out his hand, as if to ward +off something. + +"For God's sake, don't!" he said huskily. + +Carew watched him for an instant. Then he stepped forward and linked +his arm through that of Weldon. + +"There's nothing doing now," he said quietly. "Let's go for a walk. +We can talk better, while we're moving, you know." + +"But what is the use of talking?" Weldon objected listlessly. + +Carew looked into the heavy eyes, the overcast face of his friend. +Not once during the past three weeks since Weldon's return from +Johannesburg had the cloud lifted. + +"You must talk, Weldon," he said firmly. "If you don't talk, you'll +go mad. I've watched you, day after day, hoping you would speak of +your own free will. I have hated to urge you. It seemed rather +beastly to drive you into telling me things that are none of my +business. But they are my business, in a sense. There's nobody in +all South Africa who can go back farther with you into the past. +That alone ought to count for something." + +Handsome still, in spite of his dark sunburn and his time-stained +khaki, Carew's face was wonderfully attractive, as it looked into +that of his friend. Weldon felt the attraction, even while he was +wondering why it was so powerless to move him. He liked Carew; since +the death of the Captain, no other man was linked more closely with +his life. Nevertheless, Carew's words left him cold. All things did +leave him cold of late. It was as if, in the fierce conflagration of +that one hour in the Johannesburg hospital, the fires of his nature +had burned themselves out beyond the possibility of being rekindled. +His intellect told him that Carew was in the right of it, that his +alternatives were speech or madness; but he faced the alternatives +with an absolute indifference. His intellect also told him that, for +the past three weeks, Carew's kindness had been unremitting; that +his care had served as a buffer between himself and the clumsy +tactlessness of their mates; that his sympathy now was leading him +to try to storm the barrier of his own reserve; but he met Carew's +advances with an icy front which could be thawed neither from +outside nor from within. It was not his will to be ungrateful; it +was beyond his present power to show the gratitude which he really +felt. And Carew, with the supreme insight which marks the friendship +of men at times, interpreted Weldon's mood aright and forebode to +take offence. + +Nevertheless, watching his friend closely, Carew had judged the case +to be serious. He had felt no surprise at the state of collapse in +which Weldon had struggled back into camp. The battle, the half-dressed +wounds, the nerve-racking journey, the watching the slow +approach of death and the accepting the fact of the loss of a valued +friend: all these were enough to wreck the vitality of a man. With +an almost womanish tenderness, Carew had brought his friend back to +the tent, and made him over to the care of Paddy who gave up all +things else, for the sake of his little Canuck. All that afternoon +and night, Weldon lay passive, inert, while Paddy bathed him, fed +him, poured cool, soft things over his wounds, fed him again, and +then sat down beside him with his own stubby hand resting against +Weldon's limp fingers. But, the next morning, Weldon rose, buttoned +and belted himself with elaborate care. Then, disregarding the +implorings of Carew and Paddy, who were terrified at the steady, +unseeing look in his gray eyes and at the tense lines about his +lips, he went to his captain and demanded his old position of +regimental rough rider. + +He obtained it. In fact, it was given, not only freely, but with +joy. In all the regiment, no one else had been able to subdue such +wild mounts as Weldon. In former days, he had stopped at little. Now +he stopped at nothing. Horse-sickness, the scourge of South Africa, +was in the land; and the underfed, overworked mounts yielded to it +with pitiful ease. And, meanwhile, the need for horses was greater +than ever. Drive after drive through the country about Kroonstad was +bringing in the hostile Boers; but it was also bringing down the +horses. The call for new mounts was limitless; limitless, too, the +hours and the strength and the skill which Trooper Weldon put forth +to the supplying that call. He was utterly untiring; but he was +utterly reckless as well. Checked by no risk, sobered by no danger, +he rushed into risk and danger as rushes the man whose one wish is +to escape from a future of which he is in mortal, agonizing dread. + +Carew said little; he watched much, and he meditated more. At first, +he hoped all things from the healthy, outdoor life. He watched +Weldon's muscles harden, saw his appetite return and welcomed with +happy anticipations all the signs of his returning rugged strength. +Then, as the time passed by, his anxiety came back upon him in full +measure. Long days in the saddle were followed by sleepless nights; +the shadow never came out of Weldon's eyes, the alertness never came +back into his step. Lean, gaunt as a greyhound, he went about his +work with a silent, dogged endurance which took no note of the other +life about him. For Trooper Weldon, his profession had dropped to a +dull, plodding routine of danger lapping close upon the heels of +danger. And still he spoke no word of the sorrow which had brought +him to this end. + +And Carew, meanwhile, could not fail to note the increasing anxiety +with which Alice Mellen wrote of her cousin. From Alice's letters, +it appeared that Ethel, totally unnerved by the death of Captain +Frazer, had begged so piteously to be released from her hospital +work that she had finally been sent home to Cape Town. She had +seemed to be far from well, when she had left Johannesburg; +nevertheless, she had no sooner reached home than she had plunged +into the midst of the whirlpool of social life where she was said to +be the gayest of the gay. + +Cape Town, that fall, was facing the end of the war and the +consequent departure of the swarm of young Englishmen who had made +their headquarters there during the past two years. Accordingly, it +resolved to make the most of the short time remaining to it; and the +early weeks of the year saw the little city neglecting all other +things for the sake of making merry with her fast-vanishing heroes. +And, in all the round of merry-making, Ethel Dent was in evidence, +bright and flashing as the diamonds that blazed on her shoulder, and +as soft. Her wit was ceaseless, her energy untiring. Always the +middle of a group, she yet always held herself within range of her +father's protection. He watched her proudly; yet his pride was +sometimes mingled with alarm, as he saw the waxy whiteness of her +ears and the dark shadows which lay beneath her eyes. It was plain +to him that all was not well with the girl; yet he was wholly at a +loss as to the cause of the trouble. + +Strange to say, he never once thought of Weldon; neither did his +mind linger long upon the Captain. True, Ethel and Captain Frazer +had been good friends; but so had Ethel been good friends with many +another man. The secret of that last hour of the Captain's life was +buried in two hearts. Weldon could not speak of it; Ethel would not. +And so, in the eyes of her friends, Ethel's experience had been +sorrowful, but scarcely touched with tragedy. The heroic passing of +a casual friend is no cause for a lasting change in the nature of a +happy-tempered girl. + +However, Alice had noted the change and, quite unable to account for +it, she had commented upon it to Carew. Her letter, coming that same +morning, had quickened his slow-forming resolution to speak. Taken +quite by itself, her account of Ethel would have made scant +impression upon him. Taken in connection with what he had seen of +Weldon, it forced him to draw certain conclusions which, though +wrong in detail, were comparatively accurate in their main outlines. + +He and Weldon came back from their walk, wrapped in the silence of +perfect understanding. Carew had asked few questions; Weldon had +made even fewer replies, and those replies had been brief. Ethel's +name had scarcely been mentioned between them. Their talk had mainly +concerned itself with Captain Frazer, his life, his passing, the +void he had left behind him. Only one sentence had related to the +scene in the hospital; but its brief, tragic summing up of the +situation had been sufficient. Carew had made no answer, save to +walk on for a few steps in silence, with his hand resting on the +shoulder of his friend. + +That night, he wrote to Alice. The letter was long and full of +detail. It told what he knew, what he had inferred and what he +feared. It begged her, in the name of their own sacred happiness, to +help him win the same happiness for these two who, longing to come +together, were straying always farther apart; and it ended with the +words with which he had begun his talk with Weldon, that noon,-- + +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + + +Paddy waved his thumb disrespectfully towards the rear of the +column. + +"And what can you expect of a man that goes to the wars in a fancy +petticoat, let alone a khaki apron to cover up the front of it?" he +demanded. "And look at the bare knees of 'em, for all the world like +knots in the branches of an oak-tree! They may be trained to believe +it's comfortable to walk round in public with their kneepans in +plain sight; but no man can ever make me think it's either beautiful +to the eye, or respectful in the presence of one's betters." + +"But their officers wear the same uniform, Paddy," Weldon objected. +"Who are their betters?" + +"Myself, little Canuck, and yourself, too," Paddy answered calmly. +"The maple and the shamrock, severally and together, can knock the +spots out of all the thistles that's growing." + +"Until it comes to a fight," Carew suggested, from Paddy's other +side. "The Highlanders have made their record, this time." + +But Paddy shook his head. "Wait then till the end of the chapter," +he predicted. "My turn hasn't come yet. Belike I'll be the hero of +them all. I was minding my pots and my kettles, while the Black +Watch was slinging lead up on the road into Kimberley. But, faith, +if I was one of them, with the choice before me between a glorious +death and the having to live in the sound of the bagpipes, I'd mount +a Red Cross and take a white flag in my hand and sally forth to be +seen and shot by the Boers." + +"You don't like the bagpipes, Paddy?" + +Paddy's reply was sententious. + +"Did you ever hear a pig soliloquizing to himself, just as he +crossed the tracks between the wheels of an express train? Well +then!" + +"Meanwhile," Carew observed thoughtfully; "I wonder why we are out +on this trek." + +"To escort the little Canuck with his mounts, and to study the +surface of the land, to be sure." + +Carew's eye swept the barren, desolate expanse about them. + +"It is a bit monotonous, though." + +"It's monotony that's healthy. You can't make a whole dinner off +from red pepper, and you can't make a whole campaign off from +smokeless powder. In either case, you get too much heated up, for +the show it all makes. Strike hard and eat hot at long intervals and +with exceeding unction; and, meanwhile, pause and let it soak in. +It's not the hottest fire that gives off the most blazes. And where +is that nigger of a Kruger Bobs?" + +"In among the wagons with The Nig." "Just for all the world like the +deuce of spades! The Black Watch would better adopt the two of 'em +for their colors. The Nig is a pretty bit of property; but this is +the brute for me." And Paddy bent over in the saddle to stroke the +neck of Piggie who snapped back at him testily. + +However, in all truth, the little gray broncho deserved all of +Paddy's praise. Scarred from muzzle to pastern by errant bullets, +limping slightly on one fore leg, she still had borne her master +bravely over weary miles of veldt, into many a skirmish and through +the kicking, squealing throngs of her kindred which crowded the +Lindley kraal. Long since, Weldon had discovered that the +thoroughbred Nig was an ornament; but that Piggie was a necessity. +Again and yet again, her flying feet and gritty temper had brought +him, unscathed, through perilous plights. She read his mind as by +instinct; left unguided, she guided herself with exceeding +discretion; and, upon more than one occasion, she had endured the +nervous strain of feeling a human body dangling limply above the +saddle bow, held in place by main strength of her master who, +crouching forward beneath the heavy fire, could only indicate the +way of safety by the pressure of this heel and then that against her +heaving flanks. Surely, if ever honors could be given to a faithful, +plucky little broncho, Piggie should have been gazetted for the +Distinguished Service Order. Not to the men alone is due all the +honor of victory. + +But now Piggie, fresh from a prolonged interval of resting in the +care of Kruger Bobs, felt that she was out on an excursion of pure +pleasure. Behind her trailed a long column of men and mounts and +wagons; around her was a knot of horses whom she knew well; and +before her stretched away the dry and level veldt, broken at the +sky-line by a range of hills that rose sharply in a jagged line +which culminated in one peak lifted far above all the others. + +In the very front of the column rode a score or more of the South +African Light Horse, with Weldon, for the moment, in command. The +man was showing, just then, something of the temper of his mount. It +would have been good to leave behind him the slow-moving column and +go dashing away alone, far across the level plain. A spirit of +restlessness was upon him; Paddy's utterances grew vague in his +ears, and he cast longing glances towards the range of hills to the +southward, as if eager to explore them and find what secrets, if +any, lay within their keeping. Then he reined in his broncho and +forced his mind back to Paddy's conversation, still upon the deeds +of the kilted heroes of the Black Watch. + +"And they do say," he was observing; "that Wauchope was light in his +mind--fey, them piping, petticoated Scotchmen calls it--the night +before his death. Now that's something that's beyond my thinking. No +dead man ever knows he's going to die. Witness the last words of +most of 'em! They make up their death-bed speeches, and then they +turn thrifty and save up the speeches till next time. Little Canuck +dear, what would you say, if you was hit?" + +Weldon laughed shortly. + +"I should probably say 'Thank God,'" he answered. + +Paddy crossed himself. + +"And might heaven forgive you then, little one!" he said gravely. +"The Lord and the Holy Virgin may send the bullets to kill you, +unless it's from the Boers who is guided by the Father of Lies; but +it's small thanks in return they will be asking. Take the benefits +of Providence with a shout of thanksgiving; but swallow hard and +keep a stiff upper lip, when it smacks you over the head with a +shillalegh." Then, of a sudden, he bent over in the saddle once more +and rested his hand on Weldon's fingers which lay on the broncho's +neck. "And, if I mistake not, little one, it is what you have been +doing, these late days, so forgive me teaching you a lesson you've +already learned by heart." + +Two nights before this, Carew's letter to Alice had ended with the +outcry,-- + +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" + +And now the end was almost in sight. Early the next day, there had +come a call for remounts for a column halted on the veldt near +Reitz, and Weldon, with a score of others from his squadron, had +been sent out with the mounts to join the column for the trek to the +southward. As a matter of course, Weldon had asked that the score +might include Paddy and Carew; and now, with them at his side, he +was at the head of the column which trailed away far towards the +southward, twelve hundred poorly mounted men riding in leisurely +fashion towards Harrismith and the chance of rounding up an +occasional Boer. + +Dusk of the second day had brought the hills on the sky-line close +to their eyes, and had sharpened the ragged peaks into threatening +crests of bare, black rock. Already the hills were but three miles +distant, and the hour for halt almost at hand, when scouts came +flying back to the column, breathless with haste and with the +consciousness of tidings to impart. The colonel received the tidings +with outward calm. + +"A laager of fifteen hundred Boers? And a mile and a half to the +south of us? We must attack." His eyes swept the faces of his men. +"Trooper Weldon?" + +At the word, Weldon rode forward and saluted. + +"That highest hill is the key to the position. It is the one we must +hold. Can you and your men ride around to the west of the laager, +get that hill and hold it at all costs until I can send +reinforcements to you? The reinforcements will start as soon as you +reach the top of the hill. Keep out of sight, while you can. Then +rush it. You understand?" + +Weldon nodded; then, his head erect, his eyes flashing, he saluted +for a second time and, with his men at his heels, dashed off into +the thickening dusk. + +Like foothills beside a mountain range, so the veldt before him was +already broken and crumpled into a series of irregular ridges, +opening in their midst to form a tiny plain where the Boer laager +lay spread out before them. The dusk of the plain was dotted with +scattered camp fires; but, beyond the ridges, it lay heavy, and in +that heaviness Weldon placed his trust. For two thirds of his whole +distance, he could keep below a ridge to the westward of the laager. +The final third lay full in view of the enemy, full up the +increasing steepness of the mountain side, where, horses failing, it +would be necessary to creep by stealth and upon the hands and knees. +And, where the shelter ended, there lay before them a short defile +between walls of naked rock, and the defile was narrow. + +Half the way to the defile was already accomplished when Weldon +heard, from the crest of the ridge above him, the double crack of a +Mauser rifle, and then the sound of scurrying, unshod feet. He shut +his teeth, and his chin rose a bit higher. "A picket! And now the +brute has run in to tell tales," he said shortly. "Quick, men, it's +a race between us now." + +Answering to the touch of the spur, the gray broncho went leaping +forward, with Paddy's horse neck and neck at her side. From beyond +the ridge, the trio of guns could be heard, barking ceaselessly, +while their shells dropped thick into the laager, scarcely eight +hundred yards away. And now the defile, short, but narrow, was close +at hand. + +Ka-paw! Ka-paw! + +From the mouth of the tiny pass, a rain of bullets swept down upon +them. A horse dropped, shot through the knee; another, hit in the +neck, bolted, threw its wounded rider and then, mad with pain, +hurled itself straight into the ranks of the enemy. A second shot, +almost at arm's length, threw it to the earth; but not until it had +done its work. The half-broken Boer ponies, fat from much feeding +and totally unaccustomed to this species of missile, swerved at its +approach and destroyed the aim of the second volley, which was +answered by a fire that sent a full quarter of the twoscore Boers +sprawling heavily groundward. + +A scant ten minutes sufficed for the rest. Five troopers lay +helpless on the dusty soil. Five dead Boers blocked the trail at the +entrance of the narrow pass. It was a drawn game; but the end was +not yet. From beyond the ridge, Weldon could hear the guns still +pounding ceaselessly. He knew that, half a mile in the rear, his +colonel was watching for him to come to the crest of the hill; that, +in a sense, the whole game was waiting upon his moves. Whirling +himself about, he gave a short, sharp order. Scarcely a moment +later, he was astonished to see the Boers in the pass giving way +before the mad rush of his paltry fifteen men. The narrow pass was +his own. + +Beyond the pass were more ridges, some parallel with his course, +some crossing it. Far to the eastward, he could see a moving spot, +black even in the increasing darkness of the night. Leaving Piggie +to pick her own way along the rocky ridge, he rose in his stirrups, +shaded his eyes with his hands and peered anxiously towards the +spot. At last his straining eyes could make out eight Boer horsemen, +riding furiously towards the peak which he was in honor bound to +hold. And their course was the chord of the arc of his own circle. +He dropped back to the saddle where he bent low, yielding his whole +body to the flying body of his horse. + +The crest was sharp. To the east, its approach was more easy; but on +the west it offered a wall of blank, black rock. The fat Boer ponies +were still at some distance from the eastern slope, when Weldon +flung himself from his panting broncho. Carew protested, as they +told off by fours and he was left, the third man, with Paddy's +mount, the gray broncho and a huge brown Argentine horse on his +hands. + +"Sorry, old man!" Weldon said briefly. "It's luck, and dead against +you. Still, it may save Miss Mellen a bad half-hour. Look out for +Piggie. She deserves it." And, turning, he led the way up the wall +of rock, with thirteen men, breathless, grim and eager, scrambling +at his heels. + +For moments, it seemed to him that Fate was idly tossing the dice to +and fro, before allowing herself to make the final, decisive cast. +From the farther side of the hill, he heard a sudden terrified snort +from one of the Boer ponies, then the thud of feet, as they charged +up the approaches of the long slope. From behind him, there arose a +groan, as one of the men, missing his foothold in the deepening +dusk, crashed back against the loose rocks at the bottom of the +hill. Then a shot and a whinnying moan told him that Carew and his +three comrades had edged around the base of the hill into range of +the enemy above them. The man might be wounded, too, as well as the +mount. Seven Boers, and they were thirteen in all. The cast was all +for-- + +A dash of light! A rattle of firing! Three of his men dropped +backwards. The other ten looked up to face a second flash from the +summit. Only eight heard the answering echoes which came rolling +back to them from the encircling hills. Then Paddy's voice came in +his ears, low, but as unconcerned as ever. + +"Remember the fellow who was rejected on account of his teeth, +little Canuck? 'Faith,' he said; 'it's shooting the damned Boers I +want to be, not eating them.' But, by the holy Virgin Mary, in +another ten minutes we'll be shaking 'em between our teeth." + +The next flash but one showed only five men on the steep rocky wall; +but those five men were close to the summit. Once on the top, their +rifles could come into play. It was maddening to be picked off, like +stuffed crows resting on a tree branch; maddening to listen to the +low sounds from beneath which told them that some one of their +comrades was facing the end of his fight. Then, just as they reached +the summit, one of their five dropped, with a bullet shattering the +bone of his ankle. + +"Go on, boys! You'll get there," he said, as the next in line dashed +past him. "The hill is Weldon's. Mind you hold it for him. The devil +is in him, and he's bound to win." + +On top of the hill, six Boers were huddled in the scant shelter of a +few low, scattered rocks tufted with a bunch of brush whose bleached +stalks marked the darkness with a pale line of range for their fire. +The next volley went astray. It was answered by the crack of Paddy's +rifle. Paddy's chuckle followed close on the crack. "I rolled him +over like a sausage in the hot fat," he commented, as he took a +second aim. "Here goes for another, and may his bed in heaven have a +valance to hide his sins!" A second Boer vanished behind the rocks. + +Four Boers in shelter, four Britons in the open; and, on the plain +beneath, twenty-seven hundred men were waiting to see the outcome of +the game. + +The tension of the eight men increased. It rendered their aim +unsteady. Under its influence, seven men fell to wasting their +ammunition. The eighth was Paddy. Firing rarely, his rare bullets +told. Now a finger was shattered, now an ear was grazed. + +"I'm not doing much killing; but, faith, I'm warming 'em up a bit," +he said, as he halted to cool his rifle. "It's keeping the ball +a-rolling, and them busy. Else, belike they'd find Satan filling the +idle hands of them with bad deeds. Little Canuck dear, this is hot +work for a boy." + +Weldon nodded. His hat had been lost in the scramble up the hill, +his putties were dragged into heaps of khaki about his knees, the +shoulder of his coat was torn by a passing bullet and a scarlet +trickle lined his cheek; but his face was alert and eager, his lips +parted in a half-smile which brought back to Paddy's mind a dim +picture of the boyish trooper he had known and loved at Piquetberg +Road. Then another man in khaki dropped at their feet. The lines of +Weldon's mouth straightened. + +"No go," he said briefly. "We must charge. It's our only chance." + +Paddy took one last, hasty shot. Then, gripping his rifle, he turned +to Weldon. + +"True, little Canuck," he answered loyally. "Go on, and be sure +Paddy will follow you to the other edge of the grave!" + +He spoke truthfully. The reinforcements came rushing up the eastern +slope of the hill, to find their pathway encumbered with bearded men +in frock-coats and bandoliers. On top of the crest, surrounded by +the wounded and the dying, sat a single man in khaki, the light of +victory in his gleaming eyes, and Paddy's lifeless body clasped in +his weary arms. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + + +"Yes," Carew said meditatively; "I wish there had been glory enough +to go around. As long as there wasn't, though, I am glad it was +fated to fall to your share." + +Weldon hurled a little black stone at a great black rock. + +"Not so much glory, after all." + +Carew raised his eyes and apostrophized the dark gray clouds rushing +across the paler gray arch of the sky. + +"Just listen to the man! What can he be wanting? 'Not so much +glory!' And he recommended for a V. C.!" + +Weldon shook his head. + +"What does it profit a man," he paraphrased; "if he gain the V. C. +and lose one of his best friends? Besides, I didn't gain it; it was +fated. Paddy was as brave as I, and so were half a dozen more of +them. It was only chance that brought me through the bullets." + +"Poor Paddy!" Carew's tone was full of thoughtful regret. + +"Not poor at all. He had the end we all are wishing for. He died +with his boots on, and fighting pluckily for a forlorn hope. We +can't mourn a man that we envy." + +Half way to the distant sky-line, the horses of the squadron were +grazing peacefully over the stubbly grass. The corporal and the +third of the troopers appointed to guard them were far away towards +the crest of a ridge to the westward, and Carew and Weldon were +alone. Carew sat silent for a moment, his eyes on the scattered +groups of horses. Then he turned and looked directly at his friend. + +"Perhaps," he assented. "I was sorry to be out of the scrimmage. It +took all my grit to obey you, old man; but it was an order. Now it +is over--" + +"Well?" Weldon prompted him. + +"Now it is over, I am less sorry than I was. The fact is, the future +holds a good deal for us." + +"For you, perhaps." + +"For you, too. The whole future of a man doesn't go to wreck in an +hour. There are other crises later on, and some of them are bound to +come out well. Save yourself for those, Weldon. There is no especial +use in throwing yourself away." + +"I'm not. But, when the order comes, I must obey it," Weldon said +gloomily. + +"It depends something on the order; but it depends a good sight more +on the way you obey it. When a man comes into collision with a +bulldog, it's generally wise to grapple with him back of his teeth; +else, you may lose a thumb or two. It's the same way with your +orders here. Because you don't funk, there is no reason you should +flirt with an early death." + +"But I don't." + +"What about now?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"That you ought to be in hospital." + +Weldon threw back his head and laughed, but mirthlessly. + +"Why, then?" + +Without speaking, Carew took out his pipe, filled it and began +fumbling in his pocket. + +"Have you a match?" he asked. + +Weldon nodded, produced the match, lighted it and held it to the +extended pipe. Carew's eyes, drooped to the bowl, watched the bit of +flame. + +"Do you call that a steady hand?" he asked then. "Man, you're ill, I +tell you. Your face is hot and your hands are cold, and your nerves +are worn to shoestrings, frayed shoestrings at that. If you keep on, +you'll be down flatter than you like. You ought to have stopped four +weeks ago." + +Weldon crossed his arms at the nape of his neck and lay back at his +ease on the ground. + +"Then what would have become of my V. C.?" he queried, with languid +indifference. + +"But I thought you claimed not to care for your V. C." + +"I don't. My friends may, however." "As a legacy? I think your +friends may possibly choose you to the V. C." + +"Foolish of them," Weldon commented. "Still, 'If we could choose the +time, and choose aright, 'T were best to die, our honor at the +height.' I learned that when I was a small boy; but I've only just +found out what it means." + +With scoffing lips, but eyes full of unspoken love, Carew turned on +his friend. + +"Don't dodder, Weldon," he counselled him. "That's canting drivvle, +made to console the unsuccessful. No man knows when he has reached +his high-water mark. Yours may have come on the day you licked +Stevie Ballard for gilding the tailless cat; it may not come till +you are ninety." + +"No." The syllable was quiet, deliberate. Then Weldon roused himself +and sat up to speak with sudden energy. "Promise me this, Carew, +that while the matter is hanging fire, you won't mention this V. C. +business to any one." + +Carew stared at him in unmixed surprise. + +"What's the matter now?" he asked blankly. + +"Nothing, only that I want you to promise." + +"Not to--" + +"Not to a living soul." + +"Why? What's the use?" + +"No use, but my wish. If it comes off, let it be as a joyous +surprise. If it misses fire, as it quite well may, then there'll be +no harm done. In either case, it is best to keep still. My own +notion is that I'll not get it. As a rule, one doesn't get the V. C. +for shinning up the side of a hill, no matter how steep it is." + +Carew made no attempt to discuss the chances. Instead, he merely +asked,-- + +"Mayn't I tell Miss Mellen?" + +Weldon shook his head. It was exactly to prevent the inevitable +consequences of Alice Mellen's knowing the story that he was seeking +to extort the promise from Carew. To protect his motive, however, he +took a sudden resolution. + +"I shall not even tell my mother," he answered, with slow emphasis. + +Carew raised his brows. + +"Then I suppose that ties my tongue. I am sorry. What's the use of +being so confoundedly modest, Weldon?" + +"Do you promise?" + +"I suppose I must." + +"On your honor?" + +"On my honor." + +Weldon stretched himself out at full length once more. + +"So be it. Give me a light. You took my last match," he said as +unconcernedly as if they had merely been talking of the weather. + +Indeed, the weather might well have been the subject of their talk. +The earth was baked until it cracked beneath the parching sun and +wind. There had been no rain for weeks; but, to-day, the raw wind +sent the lead-colored clouds flying over the sky, and the +lead-colored clouds were heavy with rain. All the morning and till +mid-afternoon, the column had been camping not far away, while their +weary, hungry mounts had been turned out on the veldt to graze. For +men and mounts, the halt was needed. + +The fight about the laager had been no easy victory. Twelve hundred +half-starved Britons are no match for fifteen hundred Boers fat with +easy living. Weldon's hold on the crest had decided the game; but +the game had not played itself out without wounds for some and utter +weariness for all. War mad, yet half-dazed in all other respects, +Weldon had watched the reinforcements come swarming up the hill to +his relief, had heard their cheers mingling themselves with the +sound of his name. Then, listless, but with his arm still about +Paddy's shoulders, he had seen the fight move to its destined +finish. He came down from the hilltop, feeling that something had +taken yet one more turn in the evertightening coil of his brain. For +one instant, as they were laying Paddy into the narrow grave scooped +out of the veldt, the coil relaxed. Then, as the lumps of earth +closed over his plucky, loyal little comrade, it tightened again and +pressed on him more closely than ever. + +And that was a week ago; and the week between had been one long trek +in search of errant Boers. Weldon still rode in the front of the +column. He had been ordered into hospital; but, bracing himself, he +had looked the doctor steadily between the eyes and had refused to +obey. The hospital was not for him--as yet. "By Jove!" Carew was +remarking deliberately. "Look at the horses!" + +Noses in air, tails lashing and eyes staring wildly, the frightened +groups had swept together and were rushing down upon them in one mad +stampede. Straight towards the two troopers they came dashing along, +swerved slightly and went sweeping past them, wrapped in a thick +column of dust which parted, just as the horde rushed by, before the +fierce impact of the breaking storm. From zenith to horizon, the +leaden sky was marked with wavering lines of golden fire; but the +shock of the thunder was outborne by the clash of falling hail. Half +a mile away, the tents were riddled by the egg-sized lumps of ice; +and, out on the open veldt, Carew threw himself on the earth, face +downward, and buried his head in his sheltering arms. But Weldon +staggered to his feet. In the thick of the flying troop of horses, +he had seen the little gray broncho, and now, before she swept on +out of hearing, he turned his back to the gale and gave a high, +shrill whistle. It was months, now, since Piggie had learned that +call. Again and again she had come trotting up to him, to rub her +muzzle against his neck in token that she had heard and understood. +There was scant chance that the call would be carried to her by the +boisterous wind, scanter chance still that, hearing it now in that +mad rout, she would heed. Nevertheless, Weldon took the chance. +Obviously stampeded by the enemy, the missing horses would leave the +column powerless to repel the attack which was imminent. If Piggie +could be recalled, there was still a chance to regain the other +mounts. Yet, even while he was weighing all the chances, he smiled +to himself as he recalled the ineffectual little whistle that had +gone out on the whistling wind. The chance was gone. Like Carew, he +would lie down and seek what shelter he could get from the earth and +from his own clasping arms. + +The hail, falling thickly, shut down about the troop of horses and +took them from his sight. If his eyes could have followed them, he +would have seen one little gray head toss itself upward from the +heart of the throng, one sturdy little gray back move more and more +slowly, turn slightly, then weave its patient way in and out between +its frightened companions until, free from the press of the crowd, +it stood alone on the hail-lashed plain. Ten minutes later, Weldon +felt a soft, wet muzzle poking its way between his tight-locked +arms. The rest was simple. It amounted to riding back to the column +to give warning of the enemy who rode close in the rear, to +summoning Kruger Bobs and The Nig, and then, without stopping for a +saddle, to go galloping away to the sky-line to round up the +stampeded herd. The first dash of hail over, the rain fell fast upon +them; but, above its roar, they could hear the steady firing of the +pom pom behind them and the crackle of musketry mingled with the +heavier fire. + +Four o'clock had brought the stampede and the storm. Seven o'clock +brought Weldon and Kruger Bobs, drenched to the skin, back into a +demoralized camp. Nine o'clock found Weldon still in the saddle, his +teeth chattering, his brown cheeks ablaze and his eyes hot with +fever, while he waited for the pitching of his tattered tent. Then, +even before its soggy, torn folds were stretched and pegged into +position, he turned and rode off in search of a doctor. + +"Sorry," he said briefly; "but I think I've a touch of fever. Can +you put me to bed somewhere?" + +The next morning, he greeted Kruger Bobs by the name of a girl +cousin who had died, ten years before. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + + +For two weeks, the fever held Weldon in its grip. For two weeks, he +was prostrate, first with the halting column, then at the base +hospital at Kroonstad. The fever was never very high, nor was it +intermittent. It merely hung about him and ate away his strength. +For the time being, he was content to lie quiet and stare up at the +electric lights scattered through the tent and wonder about Ethel. +Now and then some sight in the hospital set him to thinking about +the Captain, wondering if he were happy in his new life of rest and +peace, he who had so often been in the thick of the fiercest fight. +Or he thought of Paddy, brave, merry little Irishman who, fighting +like an angry wolf, had died with a joke still hanging on his lips. +Then his mind went back again to Ethel. + +In vain they urged him to sleep; in vain they gave him bromides. The +body was at rest; but the wheels of the brain whirred as busily as +ever, and as logically. No hint of delirium mingled with his thought +processes. It might have saved something if there had. + +Then, one day, Weldon sat up for an hour. The next day, he was put +into his clothes and, three days later, supported on the strong arm +of Kruger Bobs, he crawled into a hospital train bound for Cape +Town. It was an order, and he obeyed. Nevertheless, he shrank from +the very mention of Cape Town. It had been the core of his universe; +but now the core had gone bad. But his time of service had expired. +Red tape demanded that he receive the papers for his discharge from +the Cape Town citadel. That done, he would take the first outgoing +steamer for London. Afterwards, he would leave his life in the hands +of Fate. He took no note of the fact that Fate might step into the +game earlier than he then foresaw. + +For full seven hundred miles, the train lumbered on to the +southward. It was tedious, exhausting; yet Weldon found a certain +interest in the jar of the rolling wheels to which he fitted the +measure of his whirring thoughts. As long as the rhythm of the +wheels lasted, his thoughts slowed down to meet their time. When the +train halted, his thoughts dashed off again; but they resumed their +slower course as soon as the wheels began once more. He took no note +of the country about him, as they passed from veldt to karroo, from +karroo to the coast plateau, and from the coast plateau down across +the Cape Flats, sparsely covered with pipe grass and acacias. Then, +as Table Mountain and the Devil's Peak lifted themselves on his +right hand, he knew that Cape Town was near, and he braced himself +to go through what was before him. + +Kruger Bobs eyed him anxiously. + +"Boss sick," he announced for the dozenth time, as the train drew in +at the Adderley Street station. "Boss berry sick mans. Boss go hotel +soon." + +But Weldon shook his head. Even now, rest had scant space in his +plans, least of all, rest in Cape Town. + +"I can do it," he asserted resolutely. "Steady me till I get +started, Kruger Bobs. Then I shall astonish you by my agility." + +"Boss go hotel," Kruger Bobs muttered in low-voiced mutiny. "Boss +too sick to trek." + +"No fear. Did you ever know me to give out, when there was something +still to be done, Kruger Bobs?" + +"What Boss do?" + +"My discharge. My banker. My passage home." + +The arm of Kruger Bobs tightened about the bony figure of his +master, but the pressure of his strong arm was only gentle and +reassuring, and the great, white-ringed eyes glittered wet. This was +not the boy master to whom Kruger Bobs had sworn allegiance. This +was an older man, and weak withal. But the weaker grew the master, +the stronger grew the loyal, loving allegiance of the man. + +After the wide, deserted stretches of open veldt, the roar of +Adderley Street seemed to Weldon like the maddening tumult of +Piccadilly. The noise stunned him; the hurrying crowd filled him +with terror. Even inside the cab, he still clung to the arm of the +faithful Kruger Bobs. Still clinging to that faithful arm, he came +out from the citadel, no longer Trooper Weldon, but Mr. Harvard +Weldon once more, honorably discharged from the South African Light +Horse. Kruger Bobs was invisible behind the spreading limits of his +smile; but Weldon had scarcely heeded the words which had been +addressed to him. All at once, like a watch about to run down, the +wheels of his brain were moving slowly and ever more slowly. His +whole resolution now centered in keeping them in motion long enough +to go to his banker and to the office of the steamship company. Once +on the steamer and sliding out across Table Bay, he could leave the +rest to the ship's doctor and to Fate. + +Even in the multitude of strangers who had passed through Cape Town, +in those latter months, he was remembered at the bank and greeted +with a word of congratulation on his record in the field. At the +word, a man beside him, hearing, turned to look, looked again, and +then held out his hand. It was the father of Ethel Dent. + +That night, the Dents dined alone. Over the roast, Mr. Dent looked +up suddenly. + +"Whom do you think I saw, to-day, Ethel?" + +"Who now?" she asked, smiling. "You can't expect me to guess, when +you are constantly running up against the most impossible people." +"Not this time. It was quite possible; but it gave me a shock. It +was Mr. Weldon." + +The smile died from her lips. Nevertheless, she asked, with a forced +lightness,-- + +"What shocked you?" + +"His looks. He was ghastly, thin to a shadow and burning up with +fever. I was in the bank, and I heard some one speak his name; but I +had to look at him for a second time, before I could recognize him. +The man is a wreck. He looked sixty years old, as he went crawling +off, on the arm of his Kaffir boy. I'm sorry. I always liked +Weldon." + +A bit of bread lay by Ethel's plate. For an instant, her finger tips +vanished inside its yielding surface. Then she looked up. + +"Too bad! He was a good fellow," she said quietly. Then she lifted +her hand to her throat. "Dear me! Have I lost my diamond pin?" she +added hastily. "I was sure I put it on. Please excuse me, while I +see if I left it in my room." And she ran swiftly out of the room. + +Mrs. Dent broke the pause. + +"Where was Mr. Weldon going?" + +"To his hotel. I came out, just as they drove away, and I heard the +boy give the order to the driver." + +"Which hotel was it?" + +"I--Really, I don't remember. He used to go to the Grand." + +"He seemed ill?" + +"He seemed--" For an instant, Mr. Dent held the word in suspension. +Then he let it drop with a slow quietness which added tenfold to its +weight--"dead." + +His wife's gentle eyes clouded. + +"I am sorry. I liked the boy. He was good to me." + +"I had thought Ethel liked him, too," her husband added a little +inconsequently. + +"So she did in a way. But there have been so many others." The +mother sighed slightly. In her young days, there had been but one. +Now, remembering that one and watching him in the present, she found +it hard to comprehend Ethel's free-handed distribution of social +favors among so great a throng of admirers. There had always been +many; now, since her recent return from Johannesburg, the many had +become a multitude, and each of the multitude could show proof of +her liking. But Mrs. Dent recurred to the fact of Weldon's illness. + +"Poor boy! Fancy being really ill, so far from home and in a hotel!" +she added slowly. + +"It is one of the risks of a soldier," her husband reminded her. + +"Yes, and the soldiers fought for us. Where would your mines have +been without them?" she suggested in return. "I really wish you +would telephone to the hotel and find out something more definite +about him." + +Her husband looked covetously at the entree, just appearing in +sight. + +"Now?" he asked. + +She ignored the mockery of his tone. + +"Yes, please," she assented quietly. "It will only take you a +minute." + +It took him ten. When he came back into the room, his hat was in his +hand. + +"I think I will go over to the Grand for a minute," he explained. "I +don't quite like what I hear." + +"What did you hear?" + +In the dim upper hallway, a girlish figure leaned far over the +railing and strained her ears for the reply. Then, noiselessly, the +door of her room shut again behind her. + +"They tell me," Mr. Dent was saying; "that Weldon is there, +unconscious in his room. The boy brought him into the house in his +arms, and they have sent for Dr. Wright. It is a bad case of +enteric, mixed with some trouble with the brain. He appears to be +suffering from nervous shock, they say, increased by a long strain +of anxiety." + +Half an hour later, he was called from Weldon's room to speak to his +wife at the telephone. + +"Yes," he answered her. "It is as bad as I heard, as bad as it can +be. You think so? Are you strong enough? Sure? Hold the wire, then, +till I ask the doctor." The interval was short; and he went on +again, "The doctor says he can be moved now, but not later. It may +be a matter of weeks. How soon can you be ready? Very well. Will you +be sure to save yourself all you can? In an hour, then. And the +doctor will have a nurse waiting there? And can you put the boy into +some corner? He would be frantic, if we tried to leave him behind. +Very well. Yes." And the telephone rang off. + +It was midnight before the Dent household was fully reconstructed. +Upstairs in the great eastern front room, a white-capped nurse was +bending above the unconscious man in the bed; downstairs in the +kitchen, the tears of Kruger Bobs were mingling with the cold roast +beef on the table before him. The doctor had just gone away, and in +the room underneath the sickroom, Mr. Dent and his wife were quietly +laying plans to meet the needs of the changed routine which had +fallen upon their home. He looked up, as Ethel came slowly into the +room. + +"By the way, Ethel, I forgot to ask you before; but did you find +your pin?" + +She looked at him wonderingly. Her face was pale and drawn; but her +eyes were shining like the gems she had professed to miss. + +"What pin do you mean?" she asked blankly. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + + +"Don't wait any longer, Carew. Really, it's not worth while." + +"Too late for us to part company now," Carew answered serenely. + +"I know. You've stood by me like a good fellow; but it will be some +time yet before I can sail. And you know you are in a hurry to get +away." + +"Don't be too sure of that," Carew advised him. "All my good things +aren't at one end of the world." + +Weldon's lips curled into the ghost of his old smile. + +"Then take one of them along with you," he suggested. + +Elbows on knees and chin on fists joined knuckle to knuckle, Carew +turned and smiled blandly down at the face on the pillow. + +"Weldon, for a man who has been off his head for a month, you do +have singularly wise ideas. But do you suppose she'd go?" + +"Which?" + +"Miss Mellen, of course. It's a question of ages. Young Mahomet is +easier to move than the everlasting hills." + +"Meaning your mother? She would thank you." "She will thank me, when +she sees Alice," Carew responded hopefully. "But, honor bright, do +you suppose Miss Mellen would go back with me?" + +"I thought she promised." + +"Yes, but now," Carew persisted, with the eagerness of a boy. "Right +off, next month." + +"There's only one way to tell; ask her," Weldon answered. "If she is +the girl I think she is, she will say yes." + +"You do like her; don't you, Weldon?" The eagerness was still in his +tone. + +"Intensely," Weldon replied quietly. "I have seen few women I have +liked as well." + +"What larks we'll be having, this time next year, talking it all +over together," Carew said, in a sudden, thoughtful burst of +prophecy. "By the time we get home, we shall forget the blood and +the dog-biscuit, and only remember the skittles and beer. If only--" + +"What?" Weldon looked up at him without flinching. + +Carew did flinch, however. + +"Nothing," he said hastily. "One is never quite content, you know." + +Weldon drew a deep, slow breath. + +"No," he echoed. "One is never quite content." + +Carew crossed his legs, as he settled back in his chair. + +"Mayhap. Some of us ought to be, though." + +"Yes. You're a lucky fellow, Carew." + +"So are you. The trouble is, one never knows when he is well off." + +"But we all know when we aren't," Weldon replied succinctly. + +Carew's glance was expressive, as it roved about the luxurious room, +with the bed drawn up near the window which looked out, between the +branches of an ancient oak tree, on the blue waters of Table Bay and +on the fringe of shipping by the Docks far to the eastward. Faintly +from the room below came the sound of a piano and of a hushed +girlish voice singing softly to itself. + +"It all depends on one's point of view," Carew said, after an +interval. "I am living in a seven-by-nine room in a hotel, and Miss +Mellen is seventy-two miles and three quarters away. Weldon, you are +a lucky dog, if you did but know it." + +Weldon shut his teeth for a moment. Then he said quietly,-- + +"Carew, it is five weeks that I have been in this house. Mr. Dent +and dear little Mother Dent have been angel-good to me. Miss Dent--" +He hesitated. + +"Has been an archangel?" Carew supplemented calmly. + +"Has never once come into my sight." + +Deliberately, forcefully, the next words dropped from Carew's +tongue. "The--devil--she--hasn't!" + +"No." + +Then Weldon waited for Carew to speak; but Carew merely sat and +stared at his friend in speechless stupefaction. + +"Oh, Lord!" he blurted out at last. "Then you haven't made it up?" + +"There was nothing to make up," Weldon said drearily. + +Again Carew's elbows came down on his knees with a bump. + +"There was, too!" he contradicted, with an explosiveness which +irresistibly reminded Weldon of their kindergarten days. + +"What makes you think so?" + +"I don't think. I know." + +"How do you know?" Weldon asked listlessly. + +"Alice Mellen told me," Carew replied conclusively. + +"Told you what?" + +"That Cooee Dent is in love with you." + +From his superior knowledge, Weldon stared disdainfully up at him. + +"Then there is one thing that Alice Mellen doesn't know." + +"She does, then. She told me about it, when you went off on your +feed, up at Lindley," Carew explained hurriedly. "I was worried +about you, and she was worried about Miss Dent, and we compared +notes. You hadn't said a word of any kind; we could only guess at +things, so we wrote to each other about it. She told me then about +Miss Dent's dashing up to Johannesburg after Vlaakfontein." + +"She went to see her cousin." + +"She also went to see you." + +Carew's emphatic pause was broken by the coming of the nurse, who +bent over the bed, raising her brows inquiringly, as she laid two +fingers on Weldon's wrist. Carew took the obvious hint. + +"I hope I've not stopped too long," he said, as he rose. "It has +been good to see Mr. Weldon. May I come again?" + +The nurse was a true woman. Therefore she smiled back into his +happy, handsome face. + +"I think you may," she answered. "Mr. Weldon is tired now, but you +evidently have done him good." + +Carew meditated aloud, as he went away down the walk. + +"Out of every five women, three are cats," he observed tranquilly to +himself. "I've cornered the fourth. It remains to be seen whether +Weldon is cornered by the fifth, or only the third. Hasn't been to +see him! Little beast! But I'll bet any amount of gold money that +she has done endless messing for him on the sly." + +Carew's words showed that it is usually not the man in love with a +woman who is the shrewdest judge of the hidden recesses of that +woman's nature. The fact was, Ethel had slaved unceasingly, but +unseen, for the patient above stairs. See him she would not. Day +after day, she invented fresh excuses to ward off her mother's +suggestions of a call on the invalid; but also, day by day, she +invented fresh delicacies to tempt the appetite dulled by months of +army biscuit and bully beef. And, meanwhile, she was waiting. + +Rather to her surprise, no message came down to her from the +invalid's room. She had supposed as a matter of course that Weldon +would intuitively recognize the source of the dainties which reached +him anonymously. Man-fashion, however, he could see no reason that +his beef tea and his wine jelly should be the work of different +hands. He devoured them both, and reflected thankfully upon the +skill of the Kaffir cook. Mr. Dent had been scrupulously literal in +carrying out the commands laid upon him by his daughter. He had left +in Weldon's mind no doubt whatsoever about the truth of his +statement that Mrs. Dent alone had been responsible for the +invalid's present quarters. Weldon had lavished thanks upon Mrs. +Dent, and she had received them without demur, as her own lawful +property. Even now, he was at a loss whether his recovery was more +owing to Mrs. Dent or to the nurse. Each had given to him a large +share of her vitality. + +From a distance, he could follow Ethel's doings, could assure +himself that his presence was no apparent check upon her happiness. +Now it was the muffled whirr of the bell, followed by low voices +from the room beneath. Now it was the roll of the carriage, bearing +her away to dine or to dance, and leaving Weldon to lie and count +the minutes until she returned. Now it was her light footstep on the +stairs, or, but this was only at long intervals, her hushed voice in +the hallway outside his door. At first, he used to lie and hold his +breath, while he waited for her to open the door of his room. By +degrees, however, he ceased to expect her. And, as the expectation +died away, he chafed increasingly at the slowness of his recovery. +Anything to get out of that house! She treated him as he would have +scorned to treat an invalid dog who had taken refuge in his stable. + +All this came slowly. For two endless weeks, Weldon lay unconscious. +For two more endless weeks, he raved in delirium. Happily, his nurse +was a discreet woman. She discouraged the visits of Mrs. Dent and +her husband, offered the excuse that strange faces excited the +invalid, and only admitted them during his brief intervals of sleep. +Meanwhile, she used all her professional principles to keep herself +from trying to solve the problem before her eyes. Upstairs was a man +sick unto death, a man who raved ceaselessly of the daughter of the +house. Downstairs, the daughter of the house was going her +accustomed way, with never a question in regard to the man above. +What had happened? How, if anything had happened, how did he chance +to be in that home, with Mrs. Dent as his devoted and anxious slave? +Resolutely, she fell to studying her temperature charts. Her +specialty was fever, not heart disease. + +A week after the tide had turned, Carew had been allowed to spend a +short half-hour with the invalid. The next day, by advice of the +nurse, Mr. Dent telephoned to him to come again. Something, whether +in his personality or in his talk, had been of tonic power over +Weldon. It seemed wise to repeat the experiment. + +Carew came on the heels of his own voice through the telephone; and +his face was smiling broadly, as he went leaping up the stairs. +After all, it had not been in vain, his quixotic lingering in Cape +Town for a weary month after receiving his discharge. Weldon and he +had been good friends through thick and thin; it would have been +beastly to leave him. And now, after all these useless weeks, he +could at least do something to lighten the convalescence. Moreover, +Carew's pocket held three letters, received that very noon; one of +grudging approval from his son-sick mother, one of chaotic, but +heartfelt thanks from Mrs. Weldon, and the third one an affirmative +answer to a telegram he had sent to Alice Mellen, only the night +before. He went into Weldon's room, looking, as he felt, the +embodiment of happiness and health. + +He hailed Weldon from the threshold. Tidings like his could wait +during no interchange of mere conventional greetings. Weldon heard +him to the end, congratulated him, demanded the repetition of all +the details. Then, when Carew's excitement had quite spent itself, +Weldon drew a letter from underneath his pillow. + +"It came, this morning," he added laconically. + +Carew seized the letter and ran his eye down the page. Then his face +lighted. + +"Nunc dimittis!" he said piously. "It's sure to be yours! Have you +told Miss Dent?" + +"I've not seen Miss Dent." + +Carew's face fell. + +"Not yet? But you will. And then you will tell her?" + +Weldon's lips straightened into a thin line. He shook his head. + +"But she ought to know." + +"Why?" + +"It is her right." + +"Why?" Weldon asked again. + +"Because--it is. It might make some difference in--" + +Weldon stopped him abruptly. + +"It could make no difference, Carew. In facing the main question, +such things as that don't count. Even if they did, though," he rose +on his elbow and faced his friend steadily; "even if they did, I +would never consent to try to bribe a girl into loving me, by +telling her I had won the V. C. It will be time enough for Miss Dent +to hear of it, when it is given." + +"But you will be in England then," Carew objected practically. + +Weldon lay down again and drew the sheet upward till its shadow lay +across his lips. + +"What matter?" he answered slowly. "And, besides, Miss Dent isn't +the girl to be won in any such way as that. Hers is a love to be +given, not bought." + +Half an hour later, Carew met Ethel on the stairs. As he halted to +speak to her, he was shocked at the look in her face. The lips were +smiling; but the eyes were the eyes of a hunted animal. + +"So long since we have met!" he said, as he took her hand. "And so +much has happened." + +"Yes. I have been hoping to congratulate you," she answered. + +"It was a stunning letter you wrote me," he said boyishly. "I +suppose we are cousins now." + +Then there came a little pause. Before either of them quite realized +it, the pause had lengthened until it was hard to break. + +"I have been up to see the invalid," he blurted out at last. + +"How is he?" the girl inquired courteously. + +"Better." Then a sudden note of resentment crept into Carew's honest +voice. "He is counting the days now before he can be moved. He says +your mother has been wonderfully good to him." + +The girl stood aside to let Carew pass her by. + +"She is good to everybody," she assented quietly. "I hope Mr. Weldon +won't think of going away until he can be moved with perfect safety. +It is really no trouble to have him here, and the nurse is very +capable." + +And Carew bowed in agreement. Once outside the door, however, he +freed his mind, tersely and with vigor. + +"Damn the nurse!" he said to the oak tree, as he passed it. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX + + + "There's a true Heart in the West World, that is beating + still for me, + Ever praying in the twilight once again my face to see. + Oh, the World is good and gladsome, with its Love both + East and West, + But there's ever one love only that is still the First and Best." + +The low voice died away. A moment later, Ethel Dent pushed open one +of the long windows of the drawing-room and stepped out on the +veranda. The flower-boxes were filled with limp stalks, chilled by +the frost of the previous night; but the sun lay warm over the wide, +white steps, over the lawn and over the bay beyond. She stood for a +moment, staring thoughtfully out across the bay; then she moved on +to the western end of the veranda, looked up at Table Mountain with +its cloth of cloud, and then dropped down into one of the chairs +which still remained in the sunny corner. + +That corner held many memories for her. She had sought it now +unconsciously; yet, once there, she lingered, although for weeks +past she had been seeking to banish those memories from her life. +Why keep them? They belonged to a chapter that was dead and gone. +Better to seal its pages and never break the seal. Better never to +reread what had been written there. If she had been mistaken in +giving her love where it was not desired, not only should the world +never be aware of the fact; but she herself would ignore the +existence of that mistake. She had loved Weldon with all the energy +of her headstrong, girlish nature. She had supposed that he had +loved her in return. Instead of that, he had gone away and left her +without a word, just when her need for him was the greatest. No man +in his senses could have seen the agony of that last hour she had +spent with Captain Frazer, and failed to understand the pitiful, +appealing look she had cast upon him. Unable to escape the agony, +she had given this tacit call to Weldon to share it with her, to +understand, and to forgive. She had been sure she could trust him; +but it was evident that she had trusted him in vain. In the hour of +her supremest need, he had gone away and left her alone. No man who +cared for her could have forsaken her in such a crisis as that. Her +lips curved into a hard little smile, as she sat rocking to and fro +in the sunshine, and, going back over a past which she had rarely +allowed herself to reopen. + +And afterwards? Afterwards Fate had been all against her. It had +been easy to escape from her engagement at Johannesburg, +comparatively easy to shut the past experience into the inner places +of her mind, to close her lips with the show of a smile, and to +plunge into a whirl of social life which should leave her no time +for quiet thought. So long as she kept her secret to herself, it +mattered nothing to the girl that it was eating pitilessly at her +vitality, that it was ever hard and harder for her to keep up her +ceaseless round of gayety. + +And then, all at once, their home life had been invaded by the man +who was never absent from her thoughts. In a sense, she was glad of +the invasion. It proved to her, more surely than any words could +have done, that she had kept her secret well and beyond suspicion. +Had her mother gained any inkling of the true state of the case, +Harvard Weldon would never have been brought away from the room at +the Grand. For so much surety, Ethel Dent could rejoice with a +thankful heart. Nevertheless, as the days passed by, Weldon's +presence in the house increased the strain tenfold. Night after +night, Ethel had crept noiselessly from her room across the hallway +and crouched outside his door, listening for any sounds from within +which might tell her that all was well with the man whom she would +not see. Day after day, she forced her life to run along in its +usual grooves, going out of the house with a laugh on her lips and, +in her heart, the sickening dread of the tidings which might greet +her upon her return. Again and again, as she passed the door left +open during the nurse's temporary absence from the room, she put +forth all her strength to keep herself from stealing in, to look +just once on the unconscious face of the man who had made her +whole life. But she held herself in check, and never once yielded to +the temptation. Well she might hold herself in check. She realized +only too keenly that, once face to face with Weldon, she would have +to do over again all the weary work of those weeks of self-repression. + +Then the stupor had given place to delirium; and, even in her room +and behind her closed door, she could hear the low, muttering voice. +After that, she crouched no more outside his room. It would have +been impossible for her to say just what it was that she dreaded to +hear. Nevertheless, she closed her ears as resolutely as she closed +her door; but, when she met the nurse on the stairs, she hurried +onward with her face turned away and her cheeks ablaze. + +And then in its turn the delirium had ended. From that time forward, +Ethel went out more constantly than ever. When she was in the house, +she started and grew red or pale at every unexpected step. Now, at +any hour, there might come a summons for her to go to the invalid's +room. She went over in detail every possible reply she could make to +every possible word which Weldon might say. She held herself ready +for any emergency. But the days dragged away, and no emergency had +come. + +And then, as it had chanced, she had been away from home, when +Weldon had finally left the house. It had been the fulfilment of an +old promise which had taken her to spend two days with a friend in +Newlands. She had had no notion that the time for Weldon's going +away was at hand. Neither, on the other hand, had Weldon any idea +that Ethel was absent from home. He had merely taken advantage of +the first day when the doctor had ceased to oppose his removal. It +had been to him a cruel disappointment that Mrs. Dent had stood +alone on the steps to watch his departure. + +That was three weeks before. Ethel had supposed that Weldon would +sail for home at once. He had supposed so, too, until all at once he +had found it impossible to turn his back upon Cape Town and all it +held. Deep down in his heart was the memory of Carew's words, +assuring him of the reason of Ethel's sudden journey to Johannesburg +after the fight at Vlaakfontein. The episode was now far away in the +past. It might chance, however, that something of the old mood might +linger in her mind. Carew had felt sure of her love for him. Perhaps +she had loved him once, before the Captain had won the first place +in her heart. Perhaps--He had grown dizzy and had grasped the edge +of the pillow to steady himself, the first time the idea had dawned +upon him--Perhaps, now that the Captain had gone beyond the reach of +human love, he might win her to care for himself once more. The +chance appeared to him to be wellnigh impossible; yet, while it +lingered in his mind, he could not force himself to go away from +Cape Town. + +The worst of his convalescence was ended, before he was allowed to +leave the Dents' home. He strained every nerve to hasten his full +recovery. The path of Ethel Dent was not parallel to the course of +any semi-invalid. If he were to meet her at all, it must be as a man +in full health. By degrees, the color came back to his face, his +lean figure lost something of its lankness, his tread grew firmer +and more alert. But the old shadow still lingered in his eyes; the +strained lines about his lips did not relax. Weldon's mental healing +kept no pace with his physical one. + +By degrees, too, his table littered itself with cards of invitation. +As yet, he felt himself too weak for any but the most informal +functions; and Carew, always at his elbow, assured him from his own +experience that informality, just then, was an unknown word in the +social vocabulary of Cape Town. Carew, bidden on all sides, was +dividing his time between his convalescent friend and the gayeties +of early winter. He dined and danced almost without ceasing; and, in +the intervals of his dining and dancing, he told over to Weldon all +the details of his social career. And these details largely +concerned themselves with Ethel Dent: how she looked, what she wore, +what she said, with whom she danced and with whom she sat it out. +And, as he listened, Weldon made up his mind that, for him, the time +for resting at home was ended. It was better, easier to go to see +for himself than it was to sit at home and imagine things, or to +hear about them, after they had happened. There was to be a +reception at the Citadel, next week. He would begin with that. + +One resolution led to the next. Only two days after he had +determined upon the reception, he ordered Kruger Bobs to saddle the +gray broncho and to attend him upon The Nig. Then, when the noon sun +lay warm over the city, he mounted and, with Kruger Bobs behind him, +he rode slowly down Adderley Street to the water front, and turned +eastward to the home of the Dents. + +The wide veranda and the great white pillars seemed like home to +him, in all truth. That house had been the scene of some of his best +hours, as of his worst ones, and his heart pounded madly against his +ribs as he caught sight of its familiar outlines. Then he drew in +his breath sharply and bore down hard in his stirrups, while his +face went white to the lips. From the western end of the veranda a +girlish figure had risen, halted for a moment with the sun beating +full upon her vivid hair; then, heedless of the distant riders, it +had turned and disappeared within the doorway. + +The maid's face brightened, as she met Weldon at the door. "But Mrs. +Dent is not at home," she said, with honest regret in her voice. +"She has gone out of town." + +Weldon controlled his own voice as best he might. + +"And Miss Dent?" he asked. + +However, the maid had just broken the Baden-Powell tea-cup. Its +fragments were still upon the floor, and she had no mind, just then, +to face her young mistress. + +"Miss Dent is not at home," she answered, with glib mendacity. And +then she wondered why it was that Weldon's pallor turned from white +to gray, as he went away down the steps. + +Nevertheless, he fulfilled his resolution of going to the reception +at the Citadel. For one reason, he had given his word to Carew. +Moreover, he felt that, for the honor of his manhood, he must accept +his fate like a man. Four months before that time, Ethel Dent had +stabbed him almost to the death. Now, with delicate precision, she +had struck him full across the face. The touch had hurt him far more +than the deeper wound had done; but, at least, she should never be +aware of it. To his mind, she had forfeited all right to the +knowledge. + +He dressed with careful precision. More than once he was forced to +sit down for a moment; more than once his fingers refused to do his +bidding and his hands dropped inertly at his side. However, Carew +found him waiting, hat in hand, and together they drove away to the +Citadel. + +Already, when they reached the door, the reception was nearing its +highest tide. The rooms were bright with uniforms and with trailing +gowns, gay with the hum of voices; and the lilt of a waltz came +softly to them from across the distance. As they halted on the +threshold, Weldon lifted his eyes and suddenly found them resting +full upon Ethel Dent. The girl was quite at the farther end of the +long room, the central figure of a little throng, and wholly +unconscious of their presence. Her back was towards Weldon. He could +only see the sweep of her shimmering gown, the heavy coils of yellow +hair and the curve of one rounding cheek; yet, even in that partial +view, he felt himself astounded at her vitality. It flashed until it +dazzled him, and the dazzle hurt. He bowed to the governor and +turned away into another room, striving, as he went, to account for +the sudden depression which had fallen upon him. He had not expected +to find Ethel Dent moping alone in a corner; neither had he looked +for a radiant alertness such as he had never seen in her before. +During the long weeks of his illness, his mental picture of her had +been colored by the sadness of their last meeting. Now the picture +was torn aside and a new one thrust into its place, and the new one +seemed garish to his weary nerves. + +"Weldon! Have you risen from the grave?" + +He turned sharply, to find himself face to face with the captain of +his former troop. + +"Merely from hospital," he answered. "I have been lying up for +repairs." + +The other man nodded. + +"I know; and thereby adding to the glamour which surrounds a man +elect for the V. C. Are you all right again?" + +Weldon's voice hardened to match the strain he was putting upon his +control. + +"Absolutely. I am sailing for home, next week." + +"And taking a farewell view of the place, before you go? Then come +to meet the prettiest girl in Cape Town." + +For an instant, Weldon hesitated. Then, reassured by the direction +taken by his guide, he followed, while the strains of the waltz came +ever more distinctly to his ears. His companion craned his neck to +reconnoitre. + +"She is dancing now; but she will be through in a moment. There," he +added, as the music rose to a crashing finale; "that is over, and, +by George, here she is! Miss Dent, may I introduce another war-worn +veteran, Mr. Weldon?" + +The shock came so suddenly that neither of them had an opportunity +to prepare to resist it. It was Weldon who spoke first, however, and +his voice was level, for he was generous enough to take none of the +advantage which so plainly was all upon his side. + +"Miss Dent and I are old acquaintances," he said quietly. + +Fortunately the captain was garrulous. + +"Another proof of the smallness of the world," he said jovially. "In +time, I shall learn the futility of introductions. One is always +pointing out next-door neighbors to each other's notice. By the way, +Weldon, didn't you know Frazer rather well? I used to meet him at +your house so often, Miss Dent." + +Ethel's fingers shut upon the sticks of her fan. + +"Yes," she assented. "Captain Frazer was one of our best friends." + +All at once, the face of the young captain grew grave. + +"I remember now," he said quite slowly. "But his loss was a sorrow +to us all. His place can never be entirely filled." + +There came a momentary pause. Then, as the captain's broad shoulders +vanished in the heart of the crowd, Weldon turned and looked Ethel +squarely between the eyes. + +"Believe me, Miss Dent," he said simply; "this is none of my doing." + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. Instead of that, her +quiet voice was full of bitterness, as she gave brief answer,-- + +"Quite obviously, Mr. Weldon." + +"Thank you for doing me that justice," he said, after an instant +when their meeting eyes flashed like meeting blades of steel. +"Stuart had no notion that he was making a mess of things." + +She faced him a little proudly. + +"I am unable to see what mess he can have made, Mr. Weldon. It is +always a pleasure to meet an old acquaintance." + +Few things could have hurt him more than the icy conventionality of +her words. All the gentler side of his nature was crying out for +mercy; but he smothered its cries and faced her bravely, praying the +while for some one to come to them and end the scene. The Ethel Dent +he had known in the old days had been a woman of flesh and blood; +this was a statue of marble, polished and beautiful, but cold +withal. He could only seek to meet her with equal coldness, then +make his escape to nurse his wounds unseen. Nevertheless, in spite +of his resolutions to the contrary, a sudden heat crept into his +answering words, + +"But I thought you had annulled the acquaintance." + +She looked up at him in mute surprise. Then, mustering her pride, +she forced herself to smile. + +"I?" she answered lightly. "Oh, no, I am only too proud to count a +V. C. among my friends." + +He waited until the last word had dropped from her lips, waited +until the silence had dropped over the last word. Then he faced her +yet once again. This time, there was determination in his eyes, +determination and a great, indomitable love. + +"Ethel," he said imperiously; "for God's sake, stop fencing with me, +and have it out. Remember it is now, or never." + +The color mounted swiftly across her face, then faded, and even to +her own ears her laugh failed to ring true. + +"I am sorry; but I fear it is impossible. Here comes Colonel +Andersen for his dance." + +Weldon faced about. + +"Colonel Andersen, Miss Dent is longing for an ice," he said, with a +sudden masterful quietness. "May I take a convalescent's privilege +and ask you to bring it to her?" Then he turned back to Ethel. +"Come," he bade her. + +"Where?" she protested; but she yielded to his stronger will and +followed him across the floor towards a deserted corner of the room. + +"Anywhere, where we can talk for a moment," he answered her, with +the same dominant quietness. Then, while they halted beside an open +window, he bent forward and laid his hand upon hers, as it rested +upon the sill. "Ethel," he added; "I am going home, next week. I may +never see South Africa again. Before I go--" + +Quietly she withdrew her hand. "Before you go, you will come to say +good by to my mother, I hope," she said, with a steadiness which +gave no hint of the tears behind her lowered lids. + +Impatiently he brushed her words aside. + +"That is for you to say. First of all, I must know one thing." + +Her nerve was failing fast; but she still held to her resolve that +he should gain no hint of her weakness. She drew back a step, as if +his vehemence terrified her, yet she dared not raise her eyes to +his. It was all she could do to hold her voice in subjection. + +"And what is that?" she asked. + +He waited for an instant, before he answered her question. Her next +words might contain all, or nothing. His lips shut to a narrow line; +then he straightened his shoulders. + +"Ethel," he said rapidly; "I have been in a good many fights; I've +found that it hurts more to be mangled than it does to be killed. +Speak out, then, and end this thing once for all. Was it final, what +you said to the Captain, that day?" + +She bit her lip; but her voice would not come, and she could only +give a little, dreary nod. Weldon watched her steadily for a moment; +then he turned to go away. + +For another moment, Ethel stared after him, heedless now of the +drops that were sliding down her cheeks. Then, of a sudden, she +found her voice. "Wait!" she said, as she stepped forward with a +swift gesture which was wholly imploring, wholly feminine. "It may +have been final; but finality is not always truth." + +He halted at her words. + +"And you mean?" + +"I mean," she answered him; "I mean that then, and now, and always, +I loved one man, and he--" she caught her breath; then she lifted +her head proudly; "was you. The rest was all a mistake; but I did +what I thought was best." + +Weldon bowed his head. + +"No matter now," he answered. + +Then, taking her hand, he led her back to the open window where they +stood together long, while, in the room beyond, an anxious colonel +threaded his way to and fro in the crowd, impatiently hunting the +partner in whose memory he had ceased to exist. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of On the Firing Line, by +Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ON THE FIRING LINE *** + +***** This file should be named 3605.txt or 3605.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/3605/ + +Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.05/20/01*END* +[Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart +and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] +[Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales +of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or +software or any other related product without express permission.] + + + + + +This etext was produced by Charles Franks and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +ON THE FIRING LINE + +by Anna Chapin Ray and Hamilton Brock Fuller + + + + +CHAPTER ONE + + +Six feet one in his stockings, broad-shouldered and without an ounce +of extra flesh, Harvard Weldon suddenly halted before one of a line +of deck chairs. + +"I usually get what I want, Miss Dent," he observed suggestively. + +"You are more fortunate than most people." Her answering tone was dry. + +Most men would have been baffled by her apparent indifference. +Not so was Weldon. Secure in the possession of a good tailor and +an equally good digestion, he was willing to await the leisurely +course of events. + +"My doctor always advises mild exercise after lunch," he continued. + +"You are in the care of a physician?" she queried, with a whimsical +glance up at his brown face and athletic figure. + +"Not just now. I was once, however." She raised her brows in polite +interrogation. Her involuntary thawing of a moment before had given +place to absolute conventionality. Weldon smiled to himself, as he +noted the change. He had been at sea for three days now, and those +three days had been chiefly spent in trying to penetrate the social +shell of his next neighbor at table. It was not so much that Ethel +Dent was undeniably pretty as that he had been piqued by her frosty +reception of his efforts to supplement the services of a careless waiter. + +Now, uninvited, he dropped into the empty chair next her own. + +"If I may?" he said questioningly, as he raised his cap. "Yes, I +have had a doctor twice. Once was measles, once a collar bone broken +in football. Both times, I was urged to take a walk after luncheon. +Is Miss Arthur--?" + +He hesitated for the right word. Still ignoring his obvious hint, +Ethel Dent supplied the word, without charity for her luckless +chaperon. "Horridly seasick." She pointed out to the level steely- +gray sea. "And on this duck-pond," she added. + +Her accent was expressive. Weldon laughed. + +"Perhaps she isn't as used to the duck-pond as you are." + +The girl brushed a lock of vivid gold hair from her eyes; then she +sat up, to add emphasis to her words. "Miss Arthur has been to +America and back seven times and to Australia once," she said +conclusively. + +"As globe-trotter, or as commercial traveller?" + +"Neither. As professional chaperon. When she applied for me, she stated--" +The girl caught her breath and stopped short. + +"Well?" he asked encouragingly. She shook her head. Again, for an +instant, Weldon could see the humanity beneath the veneering. +Moreover, he liked what he saw. The blue eyes were honest and +steady. One mocking dimple belied the gravity of the firm lips. + +"What did she state?" he asked again. + +"It's not manners to tell tales about one's companion," she demurred. + +"Not if you spell it with a little c. With a capital, it becomes +professional, and you can say what you choose. Miss Arthur is +a righteous lady; nevertheless, she is a bit professional. +And you were saying that the lady stated--" + +"That she never had been seasick in her life." + +"Oh. And did she also produce certificates as to her moral +character? Or is fibbing merely bad form nowadays?" + +With swift inconsequence, the girl shifted to the other side of the +discussion. + +"Of course, this may be a first attack." + +"Of course," Weldon assented gravely. But again she shifted her +ground. "Only," she continued, with her eyes thoughtfully fixed on +the distant, impersonal point where sea and sky met; "only it is a +little strange that, yesterday, I heard her tell the stewardess she +never took beeftea when she was seasick." + +"Oh." Weldon's eyes joined hers on the sky-line. "I have heard of +similar cases before." + +"She offered to come on deck," Ethel went on quietly. "It was +generous of her, for she knew I was left entirely alone. +Nevertheless, I persuaded her that she was better off in her berth." + +Leaning back in the chair of the absent invalid, Weldon watched his +companion out of the corners of his eyes and rejoiced at the change +in her. Even while he rejoiced, he marvelled. A Canadian by birth +and education, he had rarely come in contact with English girls. At +first, he had been totally at a loss to account for the haughty +chill in the manner of this one. Grown accustomed to that, he was +still more at a loss to account for this sudden awakening into +humanity. He had as yet to learn that two days of having her only +companion seasick, coupled with a sparkling sun and a crisp breeze, +can rouse even a duenna-led English girl to the point of expressing +her opinions pithily and with vigor. + +As the Dunottar Castle had slid away from Southampton, three days +before, Weldon had tramped briskly up and down the crowded deck, +taking mental note of his companions for the next two weeks. Among +the caped and capped throng leaning over the rail and staring after +the receding shore with homesick eyes, he saw little to interest +him. Neither did the shore interest him in the least. His own +partings had come, two weeks before, when the steam yacht had put +back from Sandy Hook. Now, accordingly, he went in search of the +dining-room steward to whom he gave much gold and instruction. Then +he betook himself to his stateroom where his mates were already busy +settling their belongings. + +The luncheon hour disclosed the fact that the dining-room steward +had earned his money and had digested his instruction. A short pause +on the threshold informed Weldon that the Dunottar Castle held +exactly one pretty girl; the steward informed Weldon that the vacant +chair beside her was his own. Weldon picked up his napkin with a +brief prayer of thanksgiving. What if he was going out to Africa in +search of Boers and glory? There was no especial reason he should +not enjoy himself on the way. + +Weldon had gained a wide experience of American girls. well-bred, +well-chaperoned, nevertheless they offered possible points of +contact to the strangers with whom they were thrown. To all seeming, +Ethel Dent was as accessible as the outer wall of an ice palace. +Beside her decorous ignoring of his existence, Miss Arthur, lean and +spectacled and sniffy, appeared to be of maternal kindliness, albeit +her only advances had been a muffled request for the salt. The next +morning, Miss Arthur's chair had been empty, and her charge, left to +herself, had been more glacially circumspect than ever. Whatever +skittish traits the pair might develop, Weldon felt assured that +they would be solely upon the side of Miss Ophelia Arthur. + +Now, however, he was giving himself praise for his own astute +generalship. It was no slight matter, at the end of the third day, +to find himself sitting next to Miss Dent in the line of steamer +chairs and even bending over to pick up the novel she had dropped. +In his elation, Weldon neglected to give credit to Miss Arthur whose +digestive woes were the cause of the whole situation. Only the riper +Christianity which comes with declining years can make one wholly +loyal to a seasick comrade. + +He gave himself yet more praise, next morning at sunrise, when he +found himself pacing the deck at Ethel Dent's side. As a rule, he +and his mates rose betimes and, clad in slippers and pajamas, raced +up and down the decks to keep their muscles in hard order, before +descending for the tubbing which is the matin duty of every self- +respecting British subject. This morning, instead of the deserted +decks and the pajama-clad athletes, the passengers were out early to +catch the first glimpse of Madeira, and Weldon, starchy and glowing +with much cold water, was on deck to catch the first glimpse of +Ethel. + +Miss Arthur was still invisible, and the girl was discreetly late +about appearing. The deck was full, when at last she came in sight; +and it seemed, to her first glance, that she was the only unattended +person abroad, that morning. Her chin rose a little aggressively as +she moved forward. Then her eyes lighted. Cap in hand, Weldon stood +in her direct path. + +"Good morning," he said. "We've just passed the lighthouse and are +nearly opposite Canical. If you come over here, you can see it." + +His tone was matter-of-course, yet masterful. At the very beginning +of her fourth solitary day, Ethel admitted to herself that it was +good to have some one take possession of her in this summary +fashion. + +"Is Miss Arthur still unhappy?" he asked, as he swung into step at +her side. + +"Yes. She has taken to her hymnal, this morning, in search of +consolation. I tried to coax her to get up and go ashore; but she +said there was no use in experiencing the same woe twice." + +"I am afraid I do not quite catch the lady's line of argument," +Weldon remarked doubtfully. + +The girl laughed. Then she decorously checked her laugh and +endeavored to turn sympathetic once more. + +"She means to make one prolonged illness. Else she will only recover +in order to fall ill again." "Oh." Weldon's tone was still blank. +"And shall you go ashore?" + +She shook her head. + +"I am sorry. You would find any amount to see." + +"I am sorry, too," she said frankly. "Still, I don't see how I can, +without Miss Arthur." + +His hands in his pockets, Weldon took a dozen steps in doubtful +silence. + +"I'll tell you what we can do, Miss Dent: Harry Carew, one of the +fellows going out with me, had a note of introduction to Colonel +Scott and his wife. He is the pompous old Englishman across the +table. I'll get Carew to introduce us, and perhaps they will let us +go ashore with them." + +"But are they going?" she asked irresolutely. + +"Surely. We have three hours here. I know Carew's mother well; she +and Mrs. Scott were schoolmates at Madame Prather's in London." + +She looked up with sudden interest. + +"Madame Prather's? That is where I have been, for the past five +years." + +"Then we are all right," Weldon said coolly. "The arrangement is +made. Carew is the only missing link. Excuse me, and I will go in +search of him." + +It was high noon when the Dunottar Castle finally weighed anchor at +Funchal and started on her long, unbroken voyage to the southward. +Side by side in the stern, Weldon and Ethel looked back at the blue +harbor dotted with the myriad little boats, at the quaint town +backed with its amphitheatre of sunlit hills and, poised on the +summit, the church where Nossa Senhora do Monte keeps watch and ward +over the town beneath. Ethel's experience was the broader for her +hilarious ride in a bullock-drawn palanquin. Weldon's experience was +more instructive. It taught him that, her hat awry and her yellow +hair loosened about her laughing face, Ethel Dent was tenfold more +attractive than when she made her usual decorous entrance to the +dining-room. + +Mrs. Scott had been a willing chaperon and an efficient one. +Nevertheless, as they stood together in the stern, looking out +across the gold-flecked sea, Weldon felt that he had made a long +stride, that morning, towards acquaintance with his companion. And, +even now, the voyage was nearly all before them. + +As if in answer to his thoughts, she lifted her eyes to his face. + +"Twelve more days!" she said slowly. + +"Are you sorry?" + +She shook her head. + +"Glad and sorry both. I love the sea; but home is at the end of it." + +"You live out there?" he asked. + +She smiled at the question. "Yes, if out there means Cape Town. At +least, my parents live there." + +"How long have you been in England?" he queried, while, abandoning +all pretence of interest in the fast-vanishing town, he turned his +back to the rail in order to face his companion more directly. + +"Always, except for one year, six years ago, and a summer--summer in +England, I mean--two years later." + +Rather inconsequently, Weldon attacked the side issue suggested by +her words. + +"How does it seem to have one's seasons standing on their heads?" + +She answered question with question. "Haven't you been out before?" + +"No." + +"I supposed you had taken the voyage any number of times. But about +the seasons, it doesn't count for much until you come to Christmas. +No England-born mortal can hang up his stocking in mid-summer +without a pang of regretful homesickness." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Do you substitute a refrigerator for a chimney corner?" he asked. +"But are you England-born?" + +"Yes. My father went out only seven years ago. The 'home' tradition +is so strong that I was sent back to school and for a year of social +life. My little brother goes to Harrow in two years. Even in Cape +Town, a few people still hold true to the tradition of the public +school." + +Weldon nodded assent. + +"We meet it in Canada, now and then; not too often, though. So in +reality you are almost as much a stranger to Cape Town as I am." + +"Quite. My father says it is all changed now. It used to be a lazy +little place; now it is pandemonium, soldiers and supplies going +out, time-expired men and invalids coming in. Mr. Weldon--" + +His questioning smile answered the pause in her sentence. + +"Well?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. + +Her teeth shut on her lower lip, she stared at the wide blue sea +with wide blue eyes. Something in its restless tossing, in the +changing lights that darted back to her from the crests of the +waves, seemed to be holding her in an hypnotic trance. Out of the +midst of the trance she spoke again, and it was plain to Weldon, as +he listened to her low, intent voice, that her thoughts were not +upon the sea nor yet upon him. + +"It ought to terrify me," she said. "I mean the war, of course. I +ought to dread the going out into the atmosphere of it. I don't. +Sometimes I think I must have fighting blood in my veins. Instead of +being frightened at what my father writes me, I feel stirred by it +all, as if I were ready for anything. I went out to Aldershot, one +day last year; but that was only so many dainty frills, so much +playing soldier. That's not what I mean at all." Turning suddenly, +she looked up directly into Weldon's dark gray eyes. "One of my +cousins wants to be a nurse. She lives at Piquetberg Road, but she +has been visiting friends who live in Natal on the edge of the +fighting, where she has seen things as they happen. In her last +letter, she told me that she was only waiting for my uncle's +permission to go out as a nurse." + +"Is that what you would do?" + +Her head lifted itself proudly. + +"No. She can take care of the wounded men, if she chooses. For my +part, I'd rather cheer on the men who are starting for the front. If +I could know that one man, one single man, fought the better for +having known me, I should feel as if I had done my share." + +She spoke with fiery vigor; then her eyes dropped again to the +dancing waves. When at length she spoke again, she was once more the +level-voiced English girl who sat next him at the table. + +"You are going out to Cape Town to stay, Mr. Weldon?" she asked, +with an accent so utterly conventional that Weldon almost doubted +his own ears. + +"To stay until the war ends," he replied, in an accent as +conventional as her own. + +"In Cape Town?" Then she felt her eyes drawn to meet his eyes, as he +answered quietly,-- + +"I shall do my best to make myself a place in the firing line." + +Again her conventionality vanished, and she gave him her hand, as if +to seal a compact. + +"I hope you will win it and hold it," she responded slowly. "I can +wish you nothing better." + + + + +CHAPTER TWO + + +A berugged, bedraggled bundle of apologies, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay +prone in her steamer chair, her cheeks pale, her eyes closed. Her +conscience, directed towards the interests of her charge, demanded +her presence on deck. Once on deck and apparently on guard, Miss +Arthur limply subsided into a species of coma. Her charge, +meanwhile, rosy and alert, sat in the lee of a friendly ventilating +shaft. Beside her, also in the lee of the ventilating shaft, sat Mr. +Harvard Weldon. + +The past week had been full of the petty events which make up life +on shipboard. The trail of smoke from a passing steamer, the first +shoal of flying fish, the inevitable dance, the equally inevitable +concert and, most inevitable of all, the Sabbatic contest between +the captain and the fresh-water clergyman who insists upon reading +service: all these are old details, yet ever new. Throughout them +all, Weldon had sturdily maintained his place at Ethel's side. By +tacit consent, the girl had been transferred to the motherly care of +Mrs. Scott who, after a keen inspection of Weldon, had decided that +it was safe to take upon trust this clean-eyed, long-legged Canadian +who was so obviously well-born and well-bred. + +Now and then Carew joined the group; but the handsome, dashing young +fellow had no mind to play the part of second violin. He would be +concertmaster or nothing. Accordingly, he withdrew to the rival +corner where a swarthy little French girl maintained her court +without help from any apparent chaperonage whatsoever. Left in +possession of the field, Weldon made the most of his chances. The +acknowledged attendant of Ethel, his jovial ministrations overflowed +to Mrs. Scott, until the sedate colonel's wife admitted to herself +that no such pleasant voyage had fallen to her lot since the days +when she had started for India on her wedding journey. Weldon had +the consummate tact to keep the taint of the filial from his +chivalry. His attentions to Mrs. Scott and Ethel differed in degree, +but not in kind, and Mrs. Scott adored him accordingly. One by one, +the languid days dropped into the past. Neptune had duly escorted +them over the Line, to the boredom of the first-class passengers and +the strident mirth of the rest of the ship's colony. Winter was +already behind them, and the late December days took on more and +more of the guise of summer, as the log marked their passing to the +southward. To many on board, the idle passage was a winter holiday; +but to Weldon and Carew and a dozen more stalwart fellows, those +quiet days were the hush before the breaking of the storm. Home, +school, the university were behind them; before them lay the crash +of war. And afterwards? Glory, or death. Their healthy, boyish +optimism could see no third alternative. + +For ten long days, Miss Ophelia Arthur lay prone in her berth. Her +hymnal and her Imitation lay beside her; but she read less than she +pondered, and she invariably pondered with her eyes closed and her +mouth ajar. On the eleventh day, however, she gathered herself +together and went on deck. With anxious care Weldon tucked the rugs +about her elderly frame. Then he exchanged a glance with Ethel and +together they sought the shelter of the ventilating shaft. + +Nothing shows the temperature more surely than the tint of the gray +sea. It was a warm gray, that morning, and the bowl-like sky above +was gray from the horizon far towards the blue zenith. From the +other end of the ship, they could hear the plaudits that accompanied +an impromptu athletic tournament; but the inhabitants of the nearest +chairs were reading or dozing, and the deck about them was very +still. Only the throbbing of the mighty screw and the hiss of the +cleft waves broke the hush. + +Out of the hush, Ethel spoke abruptly. + +"Do you know, Mr. Weldon, you have never told me what brings you out +here." + +He had been sitting, chin on his fists, staring out across the gray, +foam-flecked water. Now he looked up at her in surprise. + +"I thought you knew. The war, of course." + +"Yes; but where are you going?" + +"To somewhere on the firing line. Beyond that I've not the least +idea." + +"Where is your regiment now?" + +"I haven't any." + +She frowned in perplexity. + +"I think I don't quite understand." + +"I mean I haven't enlisted yet." + +"But your commission?" she urged. + +"I have no commission, Miss Dent." + +"Not--any commission!" she said blankly. + +In site of himself, he laughed at her tone. + +"Certainly not. I am going as a soldier." + +She sat staring at him in thoughtful silence. + +"But you are a gentleman," she said slowly at length. + +Weldon's mouth twitched at the corners. + +"I hope so," he assented. + +"Then how can you go as soldier, for I suppose you mean private?" + +Dictated by generations-old tradition, the question was eloquent. +Weldon's one purpose, however, was to combat that tradition; and he +answered calmly,-- + +"Why not?" + +"Because--because it isn't neat," she responded unexpectedly. + +This time, Weldon laughed outright. Trained in the wider, more open- +air school of Canadian life, he found her insular point of view +distinctly comic. + +"I have a portable tub somewhere among my luggage," he reassured +her. + +She shook her head. + +"No; that's not what I mean. But you won't be thrown with men of +your own class. The private is a distinct race; you'll find him +unbearable, when you are really in close quarters with him." + +Deliberately Weldon rose and stood looking down at her. His lips +were smiling; his eyes were direct and grave. His mother could have +told the girl, just then, that some one had touched him on the raw. + +"Miss Dent," he asked slowly; "is this the way you cheer on the +men?" + +She flushed under his rebuke and, for a moment, her blue eyes showed +an angry light. + +"I beg your pardon. I was referring to the men whom I am likely to +know." + +"And omitting myself?" he inquired. + +"You are the exception which proves the rule," she answered a little +shortly. "Of course, I wish you all good; but I don't see how it is +to be gained, if you bury yourself in the ranks." + +"It may depend a little upon what you mean by good," he returned, +with a dignity which, notwithstanding her momentary petulance, won +her full respect. "I am not going out in search of the path to a +generalship. Fighting isn't my real profession." + +"Then what are you going for?" she demanded sharply. With no +consciousness of dramatic effect, his eyes turned to the Union Jack +fluttering above them. + +"Because I couldn't stay away," he answered simply. "From +Magersfontein to Nooitdedacht, the pull on me has been growing +stronger. I am not needed at home; I can shoot a little and ride a +good deal. I am taking out my own horse; I shall draw no pay. I can +do no harm; and, somewhere or other, I may do a little good. For the +rest, I prefer the ranks. It's not always the broadest man who lives +entirely with his own class. For a while, I am willing to meet some +one outside. As soon as I get to Cape Town, I shall enlist in a +regiment of horse, put on the khaki and learn to wind myself up in +my putties. Then it will remain to be seen whether my old friends +will accept Trooper Weldon on their list of acquaintances." + +"One of them will," the girl said quickly. "If only for the sake of +novelty, I shall be glad to know a man in the ranks." + +He shook his head. + +"No novelty, Miss Dent. I know any number of fellows who are doing +the same thing. We can't all be officers; a few of us must take +orders. Out in the hunting field, we say it is the thoroughbred dog +who answers to call most quickly." + +She ignored his last words. + +"And you don't even know where you are going?" she asked. "To Cape +Town." + +"But after that?" + +"To my banker. After that, to the nearest recruiting station." + +"So you'll not stop in Cape Town?" + +Weldon's quick ear caught the little note of regret in her voice. + +"Not long. Long enough, however, to pull any latch-string that +offers itself to me." + +Her eyes dropped to the shining sea. + +"My mother will offer ours to you," she said quietly. Then she +added, with a swift flash of merriment, "And you will wish to see +Miss Arthur again." + +Weldon cast a mocking glance over his shoulder at the recumbent, +open-mouthed form. + +"Is the lady going to stop long with you?" he queried. + +"Long enough to recover from her invalidism." + +"To judge from her greeny-yellow cast of countenance, that may take +some time. But tell me, Miss Dent, does she always sleep out loud +like this?" + +"Not always. It usually comes when she is taking what she calls +forty winks." + +"Then may a merciful heaven prevent her from taking eighty," Weldon +observed piously. "Still, the sleeping cat--" + +"Fox," she corrected him promptly. + +"Fox be it, then. Miss Arthur seems to me to be feline, rather than +vulpine, though." Bending forward, the girl studied her chaperon +thoughtfully. + +"She really isn't so bad, Mr. Weldon. She means well. It is only +that I don't like tight frizzles and a hymn-book in combination. +People should always have one point of absolute worldliness." + +"Aren't fizzles--that is what you called the thatch over her +eyebrows; isn't it?--aren't they worldly?" + +Ethel Dent laughed with the consciousness of a woman's superior +knowledge. + +"It depends upon the season," she replied enigmatically, as she +rose. + +It was five days later that Ethel closed and locked her steamer +trunk. Leaving Miss Arthur to grapple alone with the cabin bags, the +girl went out on deck. Regardless of the glaring sunshine of New +Year morning, groups of people were dotted along the rail, staring +up at the flat top and seamy face of cloud-capped Table Mountain. In +the very midst of a knot of eager, excited men, Weldon was leaning +on the rail, talking so earnestly to Carew that he was quite +unconscious of the girl, twenty paces behind him. She hesitated for +a moment. Then, as she walked away to the farther end of the deck, +she told herself that Weldon was like all other men, regardful of +women only when no more vital interest presented itself. Already she +regretted the girlish vanity which had dictated the choice of the +gown in which she was to go ashore. For all the young Canadian was +likely to know to the contrary, she might be clad in a calico +wrapper and a blanket shawl, rather than the masterpiece of a London +tailor. + +The Dunottar Castle was forging steadily ahead through the blue +waters of Table Bay. Beyond the bay, Cape Town nestled in its bed of +living green, backed by the sinister face of Table Mountain, and +fringed with a thicket of funnels and of raking masts. To the girl, +familiar with the harbor when Cape Town had been a peaceful seaport, +it seemed that the navies of the world were gathered there before +her eyes. It seemed to her, too, that the low, squat town never +looked half so fair as it did now, viewed from a softening distance +and ringed about with its summer setting of verdure. + +Already the docks were in sight and, far to her left at the other +end of the long curve of the water front, her keen eyes could make +out the roof which, six years before, she had learned to call home. +She could imagine the stir and excitement in that home: the +controlled eagerness of her busy father, the gentle flurry of her +invalid mother, and the tempestuous bulletins issued by the small +brother whose occasional letters, full of incoherent affection and +quaint bits of orthography, had added interest to the last years of +her English life. One and all, they were loyally intent upon her +coming. And she, ingrate that she was, could spare thought from the +dear home circle to waste it upon the forgetful young Canadian who +was talking horse and politics by the rail. + +She turned sharply, as Weldon's voice fell upon her ears. + +"Happy New Year, Miss Dent! It is an odd wish to be giving, with the +mercury at ninety." + +With her London gown, she had also donned her London manner, and her +answer was banal. + +"But none the less welcome, for all its being so warm. May I return +it?" + +He laughed, like the great, overgrown boy that he so often showed +himself. + +"I decline to take it back. And where have you been, all the +morning?" + +"Packing my steamer trunk. I have been on deck for nearly an hour, +though." + +"I'm sorry I missed so much of the time. I don't see why I didn't +see you," he said regretfully. "I was over there by the rail with +Carew and a lot of the other fellows, watching the town show up. It +was mighty interesting, too, this getting one's first glimpse of a +new corner of the earth." + +Most men would have seemed penitent over their absorption in other +things. Weldon merely acknowledged it as a matter of course, and +allowed the girl to draw her own conclusions. She drew them +accordingly. At first, they antagonized her. Later on, she admitted +their justice. Meanwhile, she kept her momentary antagonism quite to +herself, as she looked up into the face of her companion, an +earnest, manly face, in spite of its boyish outlines. + +"It is hard for me to realize that you are a stranger here," she +answered him. "All the way out, you have given the impression of +having made the voyage any number of times." + +"In what way?" + +"In the way of getting what you wish in an utterly matter-of-course +fashion." Her laugh belied her London exterior and belonged to the +broad felt hat and the soft blouse of the past two weeks. + +"That is the one compliment I most value, Miss Dent." + +"See that you continue to live up to it, Mr. Weldon." + +For an instant, they faced each other, a merry boy and girl. Then +Weldon's lips straightened resolutely, and he bowed. + +"I will do my best," he answered slowly. + +Half an hour later, he joined her at the gangway and took forcible +possession of her hand luggage. + +"Surely," he said, in answer to her objections; "you will let me do +you this one last little service." + +"Not if you call it that," she said quietly. "Our acquaintance is +only just beginning. If you are to be in Cape Town for a day or two, +come and let my mother thank you for your kindness to me, all the +way out." + +He took her hand, outstretched in farewell. + +"Even if I come as Trooper Weldon?" he asked with a smile. + +And she answered, with a prophecy of whose truth she was as yet in +ignorance,-- + +"Trooper Weldon will always be a welcome guest in our home." + +Then her father came to claim her. When she emerged from his +welcoming embrace, she saw Weldon, cap in hand, bowing to her from +what appeared a most unseemly distance. The next moment, he had +vanished in the crowd. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + + +According to one's individual point of view, Cape Town, on that New +Year morning of nineteen hundred and one, was either a point of +departure for the front, or a city of refuge for the sleek and +portly Uitlanders who thronged the hotels and made too audible +mourning for their imperiled possessions. Viewed in either light, it +was hot, crowded and unclean. From his caricature of a hansom, +Weldon registered his swift impression that he wished to get off to +the front as speedily as possible. The hansom contributed to this +impression no less than did the city. Out of a multitude of similar +vehicles, he had chosen this for its name, painted across its +curving front. The Lady of the Snows had obviously been christened +as a welcome to the scores of his fellow colonials who had gone that +way before; and he and Carew had dashed past Killarney and The +Scotch Thistle, to take possession of its padded interior. + +It was almost noon, as they drove through the Dock Gates, past the +Amsterdam Battery, and turned eastward towards Adderley Street and +the Grand Hotel. It was nightfall before their luggage was safe +through the custom house and in their room. Carew eyed his boxes +askance. Weldon attacked the straps of his nearest trunk. + +"Wherefore?" Carew queried languidly from the midst of a haze of +smoke. + +"To take account of stock." + +"What's the use?" + +"To find out what we need, of course." + +"But we don't need anything. We've tobacco for our pipes and quinine +for our stomachs and fuller's earth for our feet. What more can a +man need?" As he spoke, Carew hooked his toe around a second chair, +drew it towards him and promptly converted it into a foot-rest. +"Besides," he added tranquilly; "to-morrow is Boxing Day, and the +bank won't be open until the day after. You know you can't buy +anything more than a pink-bordered handkerchief out of your present +supplies." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Don't be too sure I can make out even that," he said, as he dived +into the trunk and pulled out a Klondyke sleeping-bag. + +Carew watched him from between half-closed lids. + +"Going beddy?" he inquired. + +"Confound it, no! I thought my calling kit was in there." A pair of +dark gray blankets landed in the corner on top of the sleeping-bag. + +"That looks jolly comfortable. You'd better bunk in there, and leave +the bed to me," Carew advised him. "You're in the wrong trunk for +your calling clothes, anyway. What under heaven do you want of them, +Weldon?" + +"I don't want them to lie all in a heap." + +"They'll lie in heaps for a good long time, before you are out of +this country," Carew predicted cheerfully. "Moreover, from the look +of the place, you could make calls in either pajamas or khaki, and +it would pass muster. I saw one fellow, this noon, in evening +clothes and a collar button. Besides, there isn't anybody for us to +call on." + +Weldon smiled contentedly, as he drew out a frock-coat and inspected +its satin-faced lapels. + +"Not for you, perhaps," he observed quietly. + +"Oh, I see." Carew puffed vigorously. "So you have a bidding to call +upon Miss Dent." + +Weldon dislodged Carew's feet from the extra chair and utilized the +chairback as a temporary coat-rack. + +"No; quite the contrary," he replied. "I am invited to call upon +Miss Ophelia Arthur. Now you will please to keep quiet, for I think +I shall go to bed." + +In silence, Carew watched him half through the process of +undressing. Then, emptying his pipe and snapping open its case, he +rose and faced his friend. + +"Weldon," he said sententiously; "we don't care to hang around this +place longer than we must; and we shall have all we can do to get +ourselves enlisted and our horses into condition. We haven't time +for much else. I hope you will remember that you came out here, not +to fuss the girls, but for the fuss with the Boers." + +From his seat on the edge of the bed, Weldon eyed him amicably. + +"Don't preach, Carew," he answered coolly. "It doesn't do my soul +any good, and it only renders you a bore. It has always been a +clause of my creed that two good things are better than one." + +Nevertheless, in spite of his haste to unpack his calling clothes, +it was full three days later that Weldon turned his face eastward in +search of the home of Ethel Dent. Moreover, in all those three days, +he had given scarcely a thought to the companion of his voyage. +Notwithstanding his first impressions, Weldon had found much to +interest him in Cape Town. The streets, albeit unlovely, were full +of novel sights and the patter of novel tongues. Cape carts and +Kaffirs, traction engines and troopers, khaki everywhere and yet +more khaki, and, rising grimly behind it all, the naked face of +Table Mountain covered with its cloth of clouds! It was all a tumult +of busy change, bounded by the unchanging and the eternal. For one +entire morning, Weldon loitered about the streets, viewing all +things with his straightforward Canadian gaze, jostling and jostled +by turns. War had ceased to be a myth, and, of a sudden, was become +a grim reality; yet in the face of it all his courage never +faltered. His sole misgivings concerned themselves with the contrast +between the seasoned regulars marching to their station, and his +boyish self, full of eager enthusiasm, but trained only in the +hunting field, the polo ground and the gymnasium. Then, gripping his +hope in both hands, he resolutely shouldered his way into the +nearest recruiting office. He went into the office as Harvard +Weldon, amateur athlete and society darling of his own home city. He +came out as Trooper Weldon of the First Regiment of Scottish Horse. + +He spent the next morning in sorting over his miscellaneous luggage. +In the light of Cape Town and the practical advice which had been +his for the asking, his outfit appeared comically complete. Two +thirds of it must be stored in Cape Town; of the other third, one +full half must be left with the negro servants at the hotel. His +toilet fixtures would have been adequate for a Paris season; his +superfluous rugs would have warmed him during a winter on the apex +of the North Pole. It was with something between a smile and a sigh +that he stowed away the greater part of his waistcoats and neckties, +in company with the silver-mounted medicine chest by which his +mother had set such store. It was as Carew had said: quinine and +tobacco were the main essentials. + +Then, for the last time in many months, he arrayed himself in black +cloth and fine linen, chose his stick and gloves with care, and, +leaving Adderley Street behind him, turned eastward towards the home +of the Dents. + +He found Ethel on the broad veranda, bordered with flower-boxes and +overlooking the garden and the blue waters of Table Bay. Dressed in +a thin white gown which, to Weldon's mind, was curiously out of +keeping with all his preconceived notions of January weather, she +rose and came forward to greet him at the top of the steps. + +"At last," she said cordially, while she gave him her hand. "I began +to fear you had already gone to the front." + +"Not without seeing you again," he answered, as he followed her back +to the bamboo chairs at the shaded western end of the veranda. "In +fact, I began to be rather afraid I should never see the front at +all." + +"What do you mean?" she asked quickly. "Has something happened since +I saw you?" + +"A great deal has happened. The thing I referred to was my first +sight of British regulars." + +Her face cleared. + +"Oh, is that all?" + +"It is a good deal," he assured her, as he sat down. "I came out +here with all sorts of high notions regarding volunteers." + +"Well?" she questioned smilingly. + +"Well, they have been taken out of me. An untrained man isn't worth +much in any line, least of all in the firing line. Still, it would +be very ignominious to go back home again." + +Her eyes swept over his alert, well-groomed figure. + +"And when do you start for the front, Trooper Weldon?" + +"How do you know I start at all?" + +"How do I know you are sitting opposite me?" she asked lightly. +"Having eyes, I use them." + +"And they tell you--?" he responded. + +"That you are looking content with life." + +The laughter died out of his eyes. + +"I am," he said gravely; "perfectly content. I am enrolled in the +Scottish Horse, and I go tomorrow." + +"The Scottish Horse?" she asked quickly. "Which squadron?" + +"Do you know anything of it?" + +"A little," she answered; "but that little is good. Then it is to +Maitland that you are going?" + +"Are you omniscient, Miss Dent?" + +"No; merely an inquisitive girl who remembers the answers to the +questions that she asks. My father, you know, is in the thick of +things, and it seems to me I have met half the British army, in the +four days I have been at home." + +"Officers, or Tommies?" he reminded her. + +She laughed at the recollection of her former prejudice. + +"You told the truth, Mr. Weldon. One of the men I danced with, last +season, is riding across Natal in the same squadron with his groom. +In my one London season, I met only officers. Out here, I find Lord +Thomas turned into Tommy Atkins, and I meet him every day. But, +aside from the war, what do you think of Cape Town?" + +"What would I think of Table Mountain without its tablecloth?" he +parried. "In both cases, the two things seem inseparable." + +"Wait till you know the place better, then," she advised him. "It +really does have a life of its own, apart from its military +setting." + +"I am afraid there's not much chance of my knowing it better," he +answered a little regretfully. + +"Maitland is only three miles away, and you've not met my mother +yet," she suggested. + +"Is she at home now?" Weldon asked, with the conscious air of a man +suddenly recalled to his social duty. + +"Not this afternoon. She has taken Miss Arthur for a drive through +Rondebosch. That is quite one of the things to do, you know." + +"I didn't know. Is the redoubtable Miss Arthur well?" + +The dimple beside the girl's firm lips displayed itself suddenly, +and her eyes lighted. + +"Wonderfully. Her convalescence has been remarkably short. More +remarkable still is the fact that she has neglected to mention her +illness to any one." + +"How soon does she go back?" + +The blue eyes met his eyes in frank merriment. + +"Not until she has finished informing my mother of the present +London code of chaperonage." + +Weldon raised his brows. + +"Then I shall find her here, when I come back at the end of the +war." + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. + +"Are you so much less strict in Canada?" + +"We are--different," he confessed. "Miss Arthur's lorgnette would be +impossible with us. I don't mean the lorgnette itself; but the acute +accent which she contrives to give to it. Mrs. Scott is more of a +colonial matron." + +"Dear little lady! Have you seen her since she landed?" + +"Once. They are at the Mount Nelson, and Carew and I called on them +there. They are leaving for De Aar, Monday." + +"And what about Mr. Carew?" + +"He goes with me to Maitland. He is Trooper Carew now." + +The girl sat staring thoughtfully out across the lawn. + +"I wonder what sort of a soldier he will make," she said, half to +herself. Weldon faced her sharply. + +"Why?" + +"Because life is an embodied joke to him." + +Weldon rose a little stiffly. His call had lasted its allotted time; +nevertheless, under other conditions, it might have lasted even +longer. He liked Ethel Dent absolutely; yet now and then she had a +curious fashion of antagonizing him. The alternations of her cordial +moments with her formal ones were no more marked than were the +alternations of her viewpoint. As a rule, she looked on life with +the impartial eyes of a healthy-minded boy; occasionally, however, +she showed herself hidebound by the fetters of tradition, and, worst +of all, she wore the fetters as if they lay loosely upon her. At +such moments, he longed acutely to impress her with his own point of +view, as the only just one possible. + +"I think perhaps you don't fully understand Carew, Miss Dent," he +said courteously, yet with a slight accent of finality. "He laughs +at life like a child; but he lives it like a man. I have known him +since we were boys together; I have never known him to shirk or to +funk a difficult point. If the Scottish Horse ever sees the firing +line, it will hold no better trooper than Harry Carew." + +He bowed in farewell and turned away. Looking after him, Ethel Dent +told herself that Weldon's simple words had been descriptive, not +only of his friend, but of his loyal, honest self. + +Half-way across the heart-shaped bit of lawn enclosed within the +curve of the drive, Weldon met another guest going towards the +steps. There was no need of the trim uniform of khaki serge to +assure him that the man was also a soldier. The starred shoulder +straps were needless to show him that here was one born to command. +Glancing up, Weldon looked into a pair of keen blue eyes exactly on +a level with his own, took swift note of the full, broad forehead, +of the black lashes contrasting with the yellow hair and of the +resolute lines of the shaven chin. Then, mindful of his frock-coat +and shining silk hat, he repressed his inclination to salute, and +walked steadily on, quite unconscious of the part in his life which +the stranger was destined to play, during the coming months. + + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + + +Sitting in the lee of the picket fence which bounded Maitland Camp +on the west, Paddy the cook communed with himself, and Weldon and +Carew communed with him. + +"Oh, it's long and long yet before a good many of these ones will be +soldiers," he, observed, with a disrespectful wave of his thumb +towards the awkward squad still manoeuvering its way about over the +barren stretch of the parade ground. "They ride like tailors +squatting on their press-boards, and they salute like a parrot +scratching his head with his hind paw. A soldier is like a poet, +born, not made." + +In leisurely fashion, Weldon stretched himself at full length and +drew out a slender pipe. + +"Paddy, if you keep on, I'll fire a kopje at you," he threatened. + +Paddy disdained the threat. + +"Glory be, the kopjes be riveted down on the bottom end of them! But +it's the truth I'm telling. Half of these men is afraid of their +lives, when they're on a horse." + +"The horses of South Africa are divided into two classes," Carew +observed sententiously; "the American ones that merely buck, and the +cross-eyed Argentine ones that grin at you like a Cheshire cat, +after they have done it. Both are bad for the nerves. Still, I'd +rather be respectfully bucked, than bucked and then laughed at, +after the catastrophe occurs. Paddy, my knife has been splitting +open its handle. What's to be done about it?" + +"Let's see." + +Bending forward, Carew drew the black-handled knife and fork from +the coils of his putties. In the orderly surroundings of Maitland +Camp, there was no especial need of his adopting the storage methods +of the trek; nevertheless, he had taken to the new idea with prompt +enthusiasm. Up to that time, it had never occurred to him to bandage +his legs with khaki, and then convert the bandages into a species of +portable sideboard. + +"Paddy," Weldon remonstrated; "don't stop to play with his knife. No +matter if it is cracked. So is he, for the matter of that. Go and +tell your menial troop to remember to put a little beef in the soup, +this noon. I am tired of sipping warm water and onion juice." + +"What time is it, then?" + +"My watch says eleven; but my stomach declares it is half-past two. +Trot along, there's a good Paddy. And don't forget to tie a pink +string to my piece of meat, when you give it to the orderly. Else I +may not know it's the best one." With a reluctant yawn and a glance +upward towards the sun, Paddy scrambled to his feet and brushed +himself off with the outspread palms of his stubby hands. Then he +turned to the men behind him. + +"Stick your fork back in your putties, Mr. Carew, and I'll send you +a knife to go with it. As long as Paddy manages the cooking tent, +the cracked knives shall go to the dunderheads. The best isn't any +too good for them as rides like you and Mr. Weldon, and drinks no +rum at all." + +Weldon eyed him mockingly. + +"And gives their ration of rum to Paddy," he added. "Go along, man, +and set your kettles to boiling, while you return thanks that you +know a good thing when you see it." + +"Paddy is a great boy," Carew observed, as the little Irishman +saluted them in farewell, then turned and strolled away in the +direction of his quarters. + +"And, what's more, a most outrageously good cook," Weldon assented. +"If Paddy's ambition to shoot a gun should ever be fulfilled, +England might gain a soldier; but it would lose a chef of the cordon +bleu." + +"If I were to choose, I'd sacrifice his sense of taste for the sake +of keeping his sense of humor," Carew returned. "Not even war can +subdue Paddy." + +With a disdainful gesture, Weldon pointed out across the sun-baked +parade ground with the stem of his pipe. + +"War! This?" he protested. "It is nothing in this world but a Sunday +school picnic." + +And Carew, as his eyes followed the pointing pipe-stem, was forced +to give his assent. + +It was now five days since, with scores of their mates, Weldon and +Carew had been passed from their medical examination to the double +test of their riding and their shooting. Elated by their threefold +recommendation, they had lost no time in donning their khaki and +taking up their quarters under the fraction of canvas allotted to +them. The days that followed were busy and slid past with a certain +monotony, notwithstanding their varied routine. From morning stables +at seven until evening stables at six, each hour held its duty, for +in that regular, clock-marked life, recreation was counted a duty +just as surely as were the daily drills. + +Carew, trained on the football field, took to the foot drill as a +duck takes to water. Weldon was in his glory on mounted parade. One +summer spent on an Alberta ranch had taught him the tricks of the +broncho-buster, and five o'clock invariably found him pirouetting +across the parade ground on the back of the most vicious mount to be +found within the limits of Maitland. More than once there had been a +breathless pause while the entire squadron had waited to watch the +killing of Trooper Weldon; more than once there had been an utterly +profane pause while the officers had waited for Trooper Weldon to +bring his bolting steed back into some semblance of alignment. The +pause always ended with Weldon upright in his saddle, his face +beaming with jovial smiles and his horse ranged up with mathematical +precision. The delays were by no means helpful to discipline. +Nevertheless, the officers yielded to the inevitable with the better +grace, inasmuch as no one else would voluntarily trust life and limb +to the vicious beasts in which Weldon's soul delighted. + +Twice already, during the past five days, Weldon had handed over to +the authorities a chastened and obedient pony, and had made petition +to select a fresh and untrammelled spirit. The one of the afternoon +before had been the most untrammelled he had as yet attempted. The +contest had begun with the first touch of the saddle. It had +continued with Weldon's being borne across the camp on the back of a +little gray broncho who was making tentative motions towards a +complete handspring. By the time the pony was convinced of the +proper function of her own hind legs, Weldon found himself being +driven from the door of the cooking tent by Paddy and a volley of +potatoes. The broncho surveyed Paddy with scorn, rose to her hind +legs and strolled towards the corner of the camp sacred to visitors. +There she delivered herself of one final, mighty buck. When Weldon +regained the perpendicular, he found himself directly facing the +merry, admiring eyes of Ethel Dent. By Ethel's side, mounted on a +huge khaki-colored horse, sat the man he had met, only the week +before, in the driveway of the Dents' home. + +Scarlet with his exertions, grimly aware that his sleeve was pulled +from its armhole and his left puttie was strained out of its usual +compact folds, nevertheless Weldon saluted her smilingly and, his +mount well in hand, galloped off in search of his squadron. That +night, however, his clear baritone voice was missing from the usual +chorus about the camp fire; and, as he thoughtfully drained his tin +billy of coffee, next morning, he was revolving in mind the relative +merits of his banker and a dead mother-in-law, as excuses for +demanding a pass to town, that afternoon. + +However, afternoon found him moodily riding about the camp. His body +was on a subdued gray broncho; his mind was solely upon Ethel and +her companion. He liked the girl for herself, as well as for the +fact that, in this remote corner of the world, she represented the +sole bit of feminine companionship which is the rightful heritage of +every son of Eve. True, there was Miss Arthur; but Miss Arthur was +antediluvian. Under these conditions, it was galling to Weldon to +see Ethel absorbed by a comrade who, he frankly admitted to himself, +was far the more personable man of the two. And the girl's blue eyes +had laughed up into the eyes of the stranger just exactly as, two +short weeks before, they had laughed up into his own. Then the +little gray broncho jumped cornerwise, and Weldon had difficulty in +impressing upon her that handsprings were not an approved form of +cavalry tactics. Nevertheless, he did it with a word of apology. For +the moment, the broncho was not wholly responsible for her return to +evil ways. + +Over their breakfast, next morning, his five tentmates fell to +catechising him as to his pensive mood, and their catechism was +largely intermingled with chaff. + +"Paddy's compliments, and roll up for your tucker," the mess orderly +proclaimed, as he came into the tent, brandishing a coffee pot in +one hand, the frying pan in the other. + +Fork in hand, Carew nevertheless paused to take exception to the +word. + +"I confess I can't see why Tucker, when it is supposed to untuck the +creases of us," he observed. "Hermit, shall I serve you in the +corner; or will you deign to join us about the festive frying pan?" + +"What's the matter with Weldon, anyhow?" another of the group +queried, as dispassionately as if the subject of discussion had been +absent in Rhodesia. "His face is a yard long, and his lips hang down +in the slack of the corners." + +"Brace up, man, and get over your grouch," a third adjured him. "You +are worse than O'Brien was, the morning after he was shoved in kink. +Were you in Cape Town, last night?" + +"Not a bit of it," Carew put in hastily, while he buried his knife- +blade in the nearest pot of jam. "My left ear can prove an alibi for +him. From taps till midnight, Weldon discoursed of all the grewsome +things in the human calendar." + +The smallest of the group turned himself about and peered up into +Weldon's face. + +"Homesick, man?" he queried. + +"Sure," Weldon replied imperturbably. + +"Oh. Then get over it. Just dream of the days when the bronchos +cease from bucking and the Stringies shoot no more. Meanwhile, if +you could look pleasant, as the photographers say, it would help on +things wonderfully." + +But the mess orderly interrupted. He had tidings to impart, and they +burned upon his tongue. + +"Have you heard about Eaton-Hill?" he asked, in the first pause that +offered itself. + +Five faces turned to him with gratifying expectancy. Eaton-Hill had +come out on the Dunottar Castle. He was known to them all as the +acknowledged exquisite of the entire camp. + +"What about him?" + +"C. B. I met him coming out of the orderly room." + +"Hm! Camp scavenger. Eaton-Hill will like that," Weldon commented +dryly. "What's the row about?" + +"Cupid apparently. He went calling in Cape Town, last night, without +leave, stayed till past eleven and undertook to come in by sea. He +shipped in a leaky boat with a crew composed of one Kaffir boy; the +Kaffir funked the surf; they had an upset and Eaton-Hill waked up +the picket by the fervor of his swearing at the half-drowned +Kaffir." + +"Poor Eaton-Hill! Both his morals and his clothes must have +suffered," Carew suggested. "Weldon, take warning. Next time you go +to call on Miss Arthur, start early and be sure you have your pass +pinned to the lining of your coat." + +"Who is Miss Arthur?" demanded the chorus. + +Deliberately Carew helped himself to the last of the bacon. Then he +made answer, with equal deliberation,-- + +"Miss Arthur is Weldon's lawful chaperon." + +At four o'clock, that afternoon, Weldon arose reluctantly from his +seat on the western end of the Dents' veranda. + +"Parade at five, Miss Dent, and Maitland Camp is four miles away." + +Without rising, she smiled up into his waiting eyes. + +"You made more than four miles an hour, when Captain Frazer and I +were watching you, the other day, Mr. Weldon." + +"Yes, twenty at least. Still, as you may have noticed, my mount +doesn't always choose the straightest course. If she elects to go to +Maitland by way of Durban, it will take me all of the hour to make +the journey." + +She laughed at his words. Then of a sudden her face grew grave. + +"They've no right to give you such a horse, Mr. Weldon." + +"Right? Oh, I beg pardon. I chose it." + +"Is your life so unhappy?" she questioned, in mocking rebuke. + +"It is no suicidal mania, Miss Dent," he reassured her. "I like the +rush and excitement of it all; but I had a summer on a ranch, and I +learned the trick of sitting tight until the beast tires itself out. +Broncho-busting is only a concrete form of philosophy, after all." + +"And must you really go?" she asked him. + +He lingered and hesitated. Then, with a glance at the horse fastened +to a post in the drive below, he straightened his shoulders. + +"I must." + +She rose to her feet. + +"Good afternoon, then." + +"And good by," he added. + +"What does that mean?" + +"That we leave Maitland Camp in the morning." + +"I am sorry," she said, and her voice showed her regret. "Where are +you going?" + +"To Maitland station. Then into a train. Beyond that, I do not +know." + +"I am sorry," she repeated; "but very glad. It is time you were +doing something. I know you didn't take all this journey out here +for the sake of being drilled in Maitland Camp until the end of +time. We shall miss you; but you will come back to us, some day, and +tell us all the story of your deeds. Success to you, Trooper +Weldon!" + +She gave him her hand; then stood looking after him, as he went down +the steps. Once in the saddle, he turned back to wave a farewell to +the tall girl framed in the arching greenery that sheltered the +broad veranda. Then, urging on his horse, he went galloping away, +his boyish face turned resolutely towards the front. + +Careless of the oldtime superstition, the girl watched him out of +sight. Then slowly she moved back to their deserted corner where she +sat long, her elbows on the arms of her chair and her chin resting +on her hands. Her eyes were held steadily on Table Bay; but her +thoughts followed along the road to Maitland Camp--and beyond. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + + +That January had brought the second irruption of Boers into Cape +Colony. In reality, they were near Calvinia; but, by the middle of +the month, rumor had so far out-stripped fact that certain refugee +Uitlanders were ready to affirm that Table Mountain was held by an +invading army who patrolled the summit, coffee pot in one hand and +Bible in the other. Under these conditions, the little Dutch church +at Piquetberg Road had become, in all truth, the abiding-place of +the Church Militant. + +In deference to tradition, the altar had been promptly pulled down +and its ornaments stowed away to be safe from possible desecration. +The altar rail was left, however, and Weldon sat leaning against it, +his eyes vaguely turned upwards to the organ in the farther end of +the church. From the open floor between, the buzz of many voices and +the smoke of many pipes rose to the roof; from the vestry room +behind him, he heard the cleaner-cut accent of the officers. +Outside, above the light spatter of rain on the windows, he could +hear the horses stamping contentedly in the leafy avenue without the +churchyard wall, and the brawl of the stream beyond. The twilight +lay heavy over the church, heaviest of all over the distant organ +gallery, where Weldon could barely make out a single figure moving +towards the bench. There was a rattle of stops, a tentative chord or +two and then a few notes of this or that melody, as if the player, +albeit a musician, found himself continually thwarted by the +darkness and the absence of any printed notes. + +"Who is up there, Weldon?" Carew asked, as he peered up into the +dimness. + +"Shut up; can't you?" Weldon ordered him abruptly. + +And Carew subsided, just as the unseen organist, apparently +abandoning his more ambitious efforts, with sure touch swept into +the familiar harmonies of the Eventide Hymn, and then, still with +his hymnal in mind, jerked out the dozen stops and set the air +rocking to the steady beat of Onward, Christian Soldiers. + +As he listened, Weldon's mind went backward to his last Sunday +evening in the cathedral at home. He had known why the old rector +had chosen that time-worn hymn for a recessional; he could still +feel the stir of the congregation as he passed them, still see the +scarlet blot of color made by his own hymnal against his stiffly +starched cotta, still see his mother, erect and pale, staring at him +with a resolute bravery which matched his own. Since then, he had +been inside no church until to-day. It was a far cry from +worshipping in the Gothic cathedral to camping in the simple little +Dutch church; but in each the air was vibrating to the same martial +hymn. + +Little by little, the groups scattered over the floor fell into +silence. Here and there, one took up the refrain, now humming it +softly, now singing it with full voice. Then the refrain died away; +there was an instant's hush, an instant's modulation; and, as a man, +the crowd beneath rose to their feet and stood, pipe in hand, while +slowly, steadily from the organ came rolling down the familiar notes +of God Save the Queen. + +The organ was closed with a muffled clatter, the organist rose and +slowly came down to the floor. With a friendly word here and there, +he passed among the troopers who saluted him and then settled +themselves again for comfort and their pipes. Last of all, he paused +beside Weldon. + +"It is good to put my fingers on the keys again," he said, as he sat +down for a moment on the low rail. "We had an organ at home, and I +miss it. I builded better than I knew, when I chose this place for +our barracks. One rarely finds an organ out here." + +Just then an orderly lighted the chancel where they stood. The +organist gave a slight exclamation of surprise. + +"Isn't this Trooper Weldon?" + +The speaker's face was in shadow. Only the starred shoulder straps +gave Weldon any clue to the rank of his companion. + +"It is," he answered briefly. + +"Miss Dent has spoken of you. In fact, we were together at Maitland +Camp, last week, when you tried issues with the little gray +broncho." + +As he spoke, he moved slightly, and the light fell full upon his +yellow hair and on his blue eyes, dark and fringed with long black +lashes. Weldon looked up at him with a smile of recognition. + +"It is Captain Frazer, then?" + +"Yes. I am congratulating you on having won your way into Miss +Dent's good graces. She tells me you were most thoughtful for her, +all the way out." + +"You have known Miss Dent for a long time?" Weldon queried. + +Captain Frazer answered the question as frankly as it was asked. For +the moment, they were man and man. In a moment more, they could +resume their formal relations of captain and soldier. + +"I knew her well in England. We met at one or two house parties, a +year ago last fall. I was at her coming-out function, too." Then he +rose. "I shall see you again," he added formally. "Now I wish to +make my round of the guards." And, turning, he went striding away +towards his own quarters in the vestry. + +Weldon looked after him thoughtfully. Then he uttered terse +judgment. + +"Carew, that's a man," he said. + +"Quite likely," Carew assented. "Women don't usually wear khaki. +Shall we go in search of Paddy?" + +They found him smoking tranquilly by the churchyard gate. The old +stone wall towering above his head made good shelter from the +drizzle; and Paddy, his day's labor done, was leaning back at his +ease, exchanging adverse compliments with the half-dozen sentries +who patrolled the wall. He hailed Weldon with cordiality. + +"Come along here, little Canuck," he called. "There's room for the +two of us and fine smoking. Mr. Carew can stay out in the rain. It's +worth his while, even then, for the sake of watching that pigeon- +toed cockney in the oilskins, him as is stubbing his toes in the +sand, this blessed minute." + +"Shut up, Paddy," his victim retorted hotly. + +"It's you that should shut up and teach the toes of you to walk +hushlike. If you go on like this, you living watchman's rattle, the +Boers can hear you, clear up in the Transvaal. Tell me, little one, +have you seen your captain yet?" + +"Captain Frazer?" + +"Yes, Captain Leo Frazer, sure as you're a trooper of C. Squadron. +You're in luck, boy. There's not a better soldier nor a finer +Christian, this side the line. Neptune must have give him an extry +scrubbing, when he come over, for he's white he is, all white. +Boys!" Paddy spoke in a portentous whisper. + +"Let her go," Weldon advised him calmly. + +"It goes without letting. Once let Paddy get free of his skillets, +once let him have a rifle in place of his spoon, and you'll see war. +The Kingdom of Heaven is a spot of everlasting peace. All I ask of +Saint Peter is a place in front of a line of Boers and Captain +Frazer beside me to give the orders." + +"Here he is, Paddy." The low-pitched voice was full of mirth. "He +orders you inside your tent to plan up an extra good breakfast. Some +of these fellows must volunteer for a night guard out in the open, +and they will need a feast, when they come in." + +Weldon rose hastily. + +"At your service, Captain," he said, just as Paddy, in nowise +daunted by the unexpected presence of his superior, responded,-- + +"Sure, Captain, I put a condition on the tail of it. If you'll +remember back a little, you'll see that I merely said, 'when I get a +rifle instead of a spoon.' It's a sorry day for an able-bodied man +to be tied to a frying pan all his days. Now and then he longs to +leap out and get into the fire." + +Meanwhile, half of the men inside the church were volunteering for +the party of twenty guards demanded by the Captain. It was a surly +night, cold and raw with a drizzling rain. Nevertheless, this was +their first approach to anything even remotely resembling active +service, and the men sought it eagerly. + +By dint of attaching himself to the Captain's elbow and assuming +that his going was an understood thing, Weldon accomplished his aim. +Eleven o'clock found him, wet to his skin, sneaking on the points of +his toes through the thick grass beyond the river, with nineteen +other men sneaking at his heels. There had been no especial pretext +of Boers in the neighborhood; tactical thoroughness merely demanded +a guard on the farther side of the river. Nevertheless, the +enthusiastic fellows threw themselves into the game with the same +spirit with which, twenty years before, they had faced the danger of +a runaway by the tandem of rampant hall chairs. A stray Boer or two +would have made an interesting diversion; but, even without the +Boers, a night guard in the open possessed its own interest. + +By four in the morning, the interest had waned perceptibly. The +establishment of their force in a convenient hut and the placing of +pickets had served to occupy an hour or so. After that, nothing +happened. The storm was increasing. The rain beat ceaselessly on the +corrugated iron roof of their shelter and made a dreary bass +accompaniment to the strident tenor of the rising wind. Inside the +but the men yawned and whispered together by turns. Carew's best +jokes began to fall a little flat, and Weldon held his watch to his +ear, to assure himself that it was still in active service. Then +hastily he thrust the watch into his pocket, gathered up his +sleeping-bag and removed himself to a remote corner of the hut, with +Carew and a dozen more after him. + +Not even the most enthusiastic champion of South African rights can +affirm that the South African citizen is heedful of the condition of +his lesser buildings. The rising wind had proved too much for the +hut. Its joints writhed a little, seesawed up and down a little, +then yawned like a weary old man. From a dozen points above, the +rain came pattering down, seeking with unerring instinct that +precise spot on each man's back where skin and collar meet. + +"Whither?" Carew queried, as Weldon made his fifth move. + +"Outside, to see what the pickets are about." + +"But it rains," Carew protested lazily. + +"So I observe. Still, I'd rather take it outside as it comes, +instead of having a gutter empty itself on me, when I am supposed to +be under cover." + +"Better stay in," Carew advised him. + +"No use. Sleep is out of the question, and I'd rather be moving; it +is less monotonous." + +"Go along, then, and look out for Boers. Can I have your bag?" + +"You're too wet; you'd soak up all the inside of it. If I am to get +a chill, I'd rather do it from my dampness than your own." Carew +laid hands on the bag. + +"What a selfish beast you are, Weldon!" he observed tranquilly. +"This is no sack-race; you can't go out to walk in your bag. In +fact, it takes two to make a navigable pair. Then why not let me +have it?" + +"Why didn't you bring your own?" + +Already Carew was arranging himself in his new covering. + +"I mislaid mine in Cape Town," he replied sleepily. "Now please go +away. I need my beauty nap." + +An hour later, he was roused by a sharp reversal of his normal +position. When he became fully awake, he was lying in a pool of +water in the middle of the hut, and Weldon was in possession of the +blankets and bag. + +"What's the row?" he asked thickly. "I'm a Canadian, out here +shooting Boers. Oh, I say!" And he was on his feet, saluting the man +at Weldon's side. + +"The only bag in the squadron, Captain Frazer," Weldon was +explaining. "The blankets are quite dry. Roll yourself up, and you +will be warm in a few minutes." + +Carew surveyed the transfer with merry, impartial eyes. + +"Well, I like that," he said, when the Captain's yellow head was all +that was visible above the encircling cocoon. "I thought you said +that you preferred to catch cold from your own wetness, Weldon. I +was merely damp; this man is a sponge." + +Before Weldon could answer, the yellow head turned, and the blue +eyes looked up into Carew's eyes laughingly. + +"Merely one of the privileges of rank, Carew," the Captain observed +as dryly as if he had not risen from his warm bed to swim the river +and walk a mile in the darkness and the downpour, in order to see +how the new boys were getting on. + + + + +CHAPTER SIX + + +Captain Leo Frazer, age thirty and an Englishman, had a trick of +looking Fate between the eyes with those black-fringed blue eyes of +his, of accepting its gifts with gratitude, its occasional knocks +with cheery optimism. At Rugby he had ultimately been captain of the +school; at Oxford he had been of equal prowess in rowing and +football. Since taking his degree, he had been a successful doctor +in the intervals of time allowed him by his membership in one of the +crack regiments at home. He had never seriously contemplated the +possibility of active service; but Colenso had been too strong a +pull upon him. Leaving some scores of sorrowing patients to bemoan +him as already dead, he had promptly shipped for Cape Town. The year +of grace nineteen hundred had found him on the scene at most of its +exciting events. Where Fate refused to take him, he asserted his +strong hand and took Fate, until that weary lady was forced to go +hopping about the map of South Africa with the agility of a sand +flea. + +In battle, Frazer was always in the thickest spatter of bullets, +where he bowed himself to the inevitable and lay prone, though with +his face turned to one side to give free passage to the chaff which +carried his comrades through so many grim hours. In the presence of +danger, his humor never failed him. In those sorrowful hours which +followed the cessation of firing, no man was in greater demand than +he. Many a brave fellow had died with his hand shut fast over +Frazer's long, slim fingers; many a man's first, awful moments in +hospital had been soothed by the touch of those same firm, slim +hands. And in the singsongs around the camp fire, or at the mess +table, Frazer's voice was always heard, no matter how great the +tumult of a moment before. + +Like many another of his countrymen, Captain Frazer had learned +lessons since he had left the ship at Cape Town, just a year before. +He had come out from England, trained to the inflexibly formal +tactics of the British army. Again and again he had seen those +tactics proved of no avail in the face of an invisible enemy and an +almost inexpugnable country. He had learned the nerve-racking +tension of being exposed to a storm of bullets that came apparently +from nowhere to cut down the British lines as the hail cuts down the +standing grain; he had learned the shock of seeing the level veldt, +over which he was marching, burst into a line of fire at his very +feet from a spot where it seemed that scarce a dozen men could lie +in hiding, to say nothing of a dozen scores. He had learned that, +under such fire, a man's first duty was to drop flat on his face, to +push up a tiny breastwork of earth and to fire from behind that +slender shelter. England could not afford to send her sons over seas +for the sake of having them slaughtered by needless obedience to the +laws of martial good form. Fighting a nation of hunters, they too +must adopt the methods of the hunt. And, most of all, Captain Frazer +had learned the imperative need of mounted riflemen. Two months +before, while lying up at Durban until his wrist had healed from a +Mauser bullet, he had come into close contact with the Marquis of +Tullibardine. As a result of that contact, January had found Captain +Frazer in Cape Town, ready to take command of the newly enlisted +Scottish Horse. + +Now, as he looked over his force at Piquetberg Road, he was +congratulating himself that his men were fit for service, very fit. +Frazer knew something of men. Experience had assured him that these +men were worth training and his months of service under the great +Field Marshal had taught him that an officer could be a man among +his men, yet lose not one jot of his dignity. Accordingly, Frazer +set himself to the task in band. By the time he had been at +Piquetberg Road for two days, he knew the name and face of every man +in his squadron. A week later he could tell to a nicety which of his +men were engaged to girls at home, which of them had heard of one +Rudyard Kipling, and which of them could be counted upon in an +emergency. The two latter counts Weldon filled absolutely. In regard +to the first, Frazer permitted himself a moment of acute uneasiness. +It had been in a spirit of unmitigated joy that Frazer had met Ethel +Dent in Cape Town, on the morning of New Year's day. In London he +had known the girl just well enough to admire her intensely, not +well enough, however, to have found out that she had any permanent +connection with South Africa. His joy had lasted until the hour of +his calling upon her, three days later; then it had received a +sudden check. Ethel had been as cordial as ever; nevertheless, her +talk had been full of the young Canadian whom he had met in the +drive. Frazer was intensely human. After a year of separation he +would have preferred to bound the talk by the experiences of their +two selves. + +As a natural consequence, he had developed a strong prejudice +against Weldon; but Weldon, all unconsciously, had done much to +remove that prejudice. Not every man could manage a crazy, bucking +broncho in any such fashion as that; fewer still could come out of +the scrimmage, unhurt, to bow to a young woman with a cordiality +quite untinged with boyish bravado. That day at Maitland, Frazer had +registered his mental approval of the long-legged, lean Canadian +with his keen gray eyes and his wrists of bronze. He had registered +a second note of approval, that first night at Piquetberg Road, when +Weldon, with no unnecessary words, had contrived to impress upon the +mind of his captain that he was to be included in the guard to cross +the river. Totally obedient and respectful, Weldon nevertheless had +given the impression of a man who intended to win his own way. +Moreover, the direction of that way appeared to be straight towards +the front. + +Meanwhile, peacefully unconscious of this diagnosis, Weldon was +sitting on the river bank, prosaically occupied in scooping out the +remaining taste left in an almost-empty jam tin. Beside him, Carew +was similarly occupied. Two more jam tins were between them and, +exactly opposite the pair of jam tins, there squatted a burly +Kaffir, young, alert and crowned with a thatch of hair which by +rights should have sprouted from the back of a sable pig. His mouth +was slightly open, and now and then his tongue licked out, like the +tongue of an eager dog. Aside from his hair, his costume consisted +of one black sock worn in lieu of muffler and a worn pair of khaki +trousers. + +Behind him, the river caught the sunset light and turned it to a +sheet of flowing copper; beyond stretched the open country in long, +waving lines that ended in the deep yellow band of the afterglow. +Above them, the sky was blue; but it dropped from the blue zenith to +the yellow horizon through every imaginable shade of emerald and +topaz until all other shades lost themselves in one vivid blaze of +burnt orange. It had been a day of intense heat. Already, however, +the falling twilight and the inevitable eastward shift of the wind +had brought the first hint of the evening chill. + +Weldon shrugged his shoulders. + +"Hurry up, Carew," he adjured his companion. "I am for leaving our +feast and hieing us back to the sanctuary." + +"Right, oh!" Carew raised his jam tin and took careful aim at a rock +in mid stream. + +Instantly the Kaffir hitched forward. + +"Mine?" he demanded. + +Carew stayed his arm. + +"What for?" + +"Eat. Um good." + +"Nothing in there but atmosphere, sonny. You can get that out of any +box. Suppose I can hit that little black point, Weldon?" + +"Not if I know it," Weldon said coolly, as he tossed his own tin to +the boy and, seizing that of Carew, threw it after its mate. "Let +the little coon have his lick, Carew. It's not pretty to watch him +go at it, tongue first; but we can't all be Chesterfields. What is +your name, sonny?" + +The boy paused with suspended tongue, while he rolled the great +whites of his eyes up at the questioner. Then, the whites still +turned upon Weldon, he took one more hasty lick. + +"Kruger Roberts," he said then, detaching himself for an instant +from his treasure. "Oh, I infer you like to sit on fences?" Weldon +said interrogatively. + +"Ya, Boss." + +"Which side do you intend to come down?" + +"Me no come down," the boy answered nonchalantly, more from inherent +indifference than from any comprehension of Weldon's allegory. + +"All right. Stop where you are. Meanwhile, I think I should call you +Jamboree." + +"Ya, Boss." The face vanished from sight behind the tilted tin. Then +it reappeared, and a huge finger pointed to the remaining tins. +"Mine, too?" + +But already the boy was forgotten. Weldon was following hard on the +heels of the sentry who had dashed through the gate in the +churchyard wall. + +Four o'clock the next morning, that darkest hour which, by its very +darkness, heralds the coming dawn, found C. Squadron moving out from +the gray-walled churchyard, their faces set towards the eastern +mountains. All night long they had stood under arms, ready for the +attack which might be at hand. By dawn, they were well on their way +towards the laager, fifteen miles distant, whence had come the +scouting hand of Boers who, for two days past, had made leisurely +efforts to pick off their scattered sentinels. At the head of the +little troop rode Frazer. Behind him and as close to his heels as +military law allowed, came Weldon, mounted on the same little black +horse which had so often carried him to the hunt at home. Horse and +rider both sniffed the chilly dawn with eager anticipation. Each +knew that something was in store for them; each contrived to impress +upon the other his determination to make a record, whatever +happened. For one short minute, Weldon let his strong hand rest on +the satiny neck. He could feel the answering pressure of the muscles +beneath the shining skin. That was enough. He and The Nig were in +perfect understanding, one with another. + +"Weldon?" + +He spurred forward to the Captain's side and saluted. + +"In the flurry, last night, I forgot to tell you that Miss Dent +comes to Piquetberg Road, to-day. She is to visit a cousin, Miss +Mellen; and she wished me to tell you that she hoped you could find +time to call upon her." + +The Captain spoke low, his eyes, after the first moment, steadily +fixed upon the line of hills before them. Weldon answered in the +same low tone. + +"You have heard from Miss Dent?" + +"Yes. A note came, last night. She is to be here for a month, while +her uncle is in England on a business trip. Mr. Mellen is the mayor. +You probably know the house." + +"I can easily find it. Please tell Miss Dent I shall be sure to call +as--" + +A blinding flash ran along the line of hills close in the foreground +where, an instant before, had been only empty ground. There was a +sharp crackle, a strident hum and then the muffled plop of bullets +burying themselves in the earth six hundred feet in the rear. The +Nig grew taut in every muscle; then she edged slowly towards the +huge khaki-colored horse that bore the Captain, and, for an instant, +the two muzzles touched. + +"Too long a range, man. Try it again," Frazer observed coolly, as +his glance swept the empty landscape, then, turning, swept the faces +of his men. + +That last sight was to his liking. He nodded to himself and +straightened in his saddle, while the orders dropped from his lips, +swift, clean-cut and brooking no question nor delay. Ten men went +galloping off far to the southward, to vanish among the foothills +and reappear on the pass behind the enemy, while a dozen Boers, +springing up from the bowels of the earth, followed hard on their +heels. Ten more took the horses and fell back out of range of the +firing; and the remainder of the squadron stayed in their places and +helped to play out the game. + +It was all quite simple, all a matter of course. Instead of the fuss +and fume and chaos of fighting, it had worked itself out like a +problem in mathematics, and Weldon, as he lay on the ground with his +Lee-Enfield cuddled into the curve of his shoulder, felt himself +reducing it to a pair of simultaneous equations: if X Britons equal +Y Boers on the firing line, and Y Britons draw off the fire of W +Boers, then how many Britons--But there came a second flash and a +second spatter, nearer, this time; and he lost his mathematics in a +sudden rush of bad temper which made him long to fly at the +invisible foe and beat him about the head with his clubbed rifle. It +was no especial satisfaction for a man in his position to climb up +on his elbow and help to discharge a volley at an empty landscape. +The war pictures he had been prone to study in his boyhood had been +full of twisty-necked prancing horses and bright-coated swaggering +men, all on their feet, and very hot and earnest. Here the picture +was made up of a row of brown-clothed forms lying flat on their +stomachs and, far before them, a single flat-topped hill and a few +heaps of scattered black rocks. And this was modern war. + +There came a third blaze, a third hum of Mauser bullets. Then he +heard a swift intake of the breath, followed by Carew's voice, the +drawling, languid voice which Weldon had learned to associate with +moments of deep excitement. + +"Say, Weldon, some beggar has hit me in the shoulder!" + +Then of a sudden Weldon realized that at last he knew what it meant +to be under fire. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + + +"Oh, truce! Truce!" Alice Mellen protested. "Don't talk shop, +Cooee." + +"It's not shop; it is topics of the day," Ethel responded +tranquilly. "Besides, I want to hear about Mr. Carew. Is he +dangerous?" + +Weldon laughed. + +"No, for his wound; yes, for his temper. One was only a scratch; the +other way, he was horribly cut up." + +"Did he swear?" Alice queried, while she distributed lumps of sugar +among the cups. + +"Alice!" + +"Don't pretend to be shocked, Cooee. Even if you haven't been out +but one season, you ought to know what happens when a man turns +testy. Frankly, I think it is a healthy sign, if a man stops to +swear when he is hit. It shows there are no morbid secretions." + +"You prefer superficial outbreaks, Miss Mellen?" Frazer inquired, as +he handed Ethel her cup. + +"Yes. They are far less likely to produce mortification later on," +she answered, laughing up into his steady eyes. "What do you do, +when you are hit, Captain Frazer?" + +"They call me Lucky Frazer, you know," he replied. "I've been in no +end of scrimmages, and I was never hit but once." + +Bending over, Ethel turned back the cloth and thumped on the under +side of the table. + +"Unberufen and Absit omen," she said hastily. "Don't tempt +Providence too far, Captain Frazer. At my coming-out reception, I +met a man who boasted that he always broke everything within range, +from hearts to china. Ten minutes later, he tripped over a rug and +fell down on top of the plate of salad he was bringing me. And he +didn't break a thing--" + +"Except his own record," Weldon supplemented unexpectedly. "I +suspect he also broke the third commandment. The keeping of that and +the falling down in public are totally incompatible." + +"And that reminds me, you were going to tell what Mr. Carew did when +he was hit," Ethel reminded him. + +"I never tell tales, Miss Dent." + +"But, really, how does it feel to be under fire?" she persisted. + +"Ask Captain Frazer. He has had more experience than I." + +She barely turned her eyes towards Frazer's face. + +"He is talking to my cousin and won't hear. Were you frightened?" + +"No." + +"Truly? But you wouldn't confess, if you were." + +He blushed at the mockery in her tone. + +"Yes. Why not? I expected to be desperately afraid; but I was only +desperately angry." + +"At what?" + +"Nothing. That's the point. There was nothing in sight to be angry +at. Bullets came from nowhere in a pelting shower. Most of them +didn't hit anything; there was no cloud from which the shower could +come. One resented it, without knowing exactly why. It was being the +big fellow who can't hit back when the little one torments him." + +"Cooee!" + +The remonstrance was long-drawn and forceful. This time, Ethel +heeded. + +"What is it, Alice?" + +"Do you remember that, this noon, we agreed not to mention the war? +These men fight almost without ceasing. When they aren't fighting, +they do sentry and stables and things. This is an afternoon off for +them. We really must talk accordingly." + +"What are you and Captain Frazer talking about?" + +"Cricket and seven-year locusts." + +Ethel held out her empty cup. + +"Very well. Then Mr. Weldon and I will discuss mosquitoes and seven- +day Baptists. No sugar, please, and I'd like another of those snappy +things." + +"Does that mean a Mauser?" Weldon asked, as he brought back her cup. + +"No. I mean biscuits, not cats. But you sinned then. However, my +cousin has her eye upon us, so we must be distinctly frivolous. Is +there any especially peaceful subject you would like to discuss?" + +"Yes. Please explain your name." + +She looked up at him with sudden literalness. + +"It is for my grandmother. For four hundred years there has been an +Ethel Dent in every generation." + +"I meant the other." + +"Oh, Cooee?" She laughed. "It dates from our first coming out here, +when we were children. My old Kaffir nurse--I was only five, that +first trip--used to call me so, and every one took it up. We went +back to England, after a few weeks, and the name was dropped; but my +uncle stayed out here, and he and my cousin always kept the old +word." + +Weldon stirred his tea thoughtfully. + +"I rather like it, do you know?" he said. + +"Surely, you don't think it fits me?" + +His eyes moved from her shining hair to the hem of her elaborate +white gown. Then he smiled and shook his head. + +"Not to-day, perhaps. But the Miss Dent of the Dunottar Castle--" + +She interrupted him a little abruptly. + +"Does that mean I am two-sided?" + +"No; only complex." + +She smiled in gracious response. + +"You did that very well, Mr. Weldon," she said, with a slight accent +of superiority which galled him. Then, before he could reply, she +changed the subject, speaking with a lowered voice. "And what of the +Captain?" + +It suited his mood not to understand her. + +"In what way?" + +"Every way. What do you think of him?" + +Then she drew back, abashed by the fervor of the answer, as he said +slowly,-- + +"That the Creator made him, and then broke the pattern." + +The little pause which followed caught the alert attention of the +hostess, and convinced her that it was time to shift the groups to +another combination. A swift gesture summoned Weldon to the table, +while Frazer dropped into his vacant chair. Ethel met the Captain +with only a half-concealed eagerness. This was not the first time +that a consciously trivial word of hers had been crushed out of life +by Weldon's serious dignity. She was never quite able to understand +his mood upon such occasions. The man was no prig. At times, he was +as merry as a boy. At other times, he showed an inflexible +seriousness which left her with the vague feeling of being somehow +or other in the wrong. The result was a mood of pique, rather than +of antagonism. Up to that time, Ethel Dent had known only unreserved +approval. Weldon's occasional gravity, to her mind, suggested +certain reservations. By way of overcoming these reservations, she +focussed her whole attention upon Captain Leo Frazer. Across the +table, Weldon, in the intervals of his talk with his hostess, could +hear the low murmur of their absorbed conversation. + +It had been at Ethel's suggestion that the tea-table had been set, +that hot afternoon, under the trees in the heart of the garden. Just +at the crossing of two broad walks, a vine-roofed kiosk gave shelter +from the late sunshine, while its bamboo screens were half raised to +show the long perspective of garden walk and distant lawn. Save for +the orange grove at the left and the ash-colored leaves of the +silver wattle above them, Weldon could almost have fancied himself +in England. The lawn with its conventional tennis court was +essentially English; English, too, the tray with its fixtures. +There, however, the resemblance stopped. The ebony handmaiden who +brought out the tray was never found in private life outside the +limits of South Africa. When she sought foreign countries, it was +merely as a denizen of a midway plaisance. + +"Yes, and their names are their most distinctive feature," Alice +assented to Weldon's comment. + +"More than their mouths?" he asked, with a flippant recollection +of Kruger Roberts engrossed in his jam tin. + +"At least as much so," she responded, laughing. "You notice that I +called our maid Syb. She told me, when she came, that her old master +named her Sybarite. I understood it, the next day, when I found her +snoring on the drawing-room sofa." + +During the time of her answer, Weldon took his opportunity to look +steadily at his young hostess. Up to the moment of the shifting of +the groups, he had been too fully absorbed in the pleasure of once +more meeting Ethel to pay much heed to any one else. Now he turned +his gray eyes upon Alice Mellen, partly from real interest in her +personality; partly to counterbalance the rapt attention which Ethel +was bestowing upon the Captain. She had been the selfsame Ethel, a +bundle of contradictions that attracted him at one moment and +antagonized him at the next. He liked her absolutely; his very +liking for her increased the sense of antagonism when, for the +instant, she departed from his ideals of what she ought to be. And +yet, Weldon was candid enough to admit to himself that she departed +from them, rather than fell below them. Often as she had antagonized +him, she had never really disappointed him. + +As for Alice Mellen, he confessed himself surprised. Gathering +together all that Ethel had ever told him of her cousin, of her +living her entire life out there in the southern end of South +Africa, of her desire to be a nurse, he had pieced together an +effigy of the combined traits of a Hottentot and a vivandiere. This +girl answered to neither description. Her clothes and her manners +and her accent all had come, albeit with slow indirectness, from +London. Not only would she and her gowns pass muster in a crowd; but +furthermore she would end by being the focal point of a good share +of that crowd. Nevertheless, Weldon found it impossible to discover +her most distinctive point. Even while he sought it, he wondered to +himself whether this might not be another cousin of whom he had +never heard. The women doctors and nurses at home wore stout shoes +and had pockets let in at the seams of their frocks, useful, +doubtless, but with an unlovely tendency to yawn and show their +contents. This girl was a mere fluff of pale yellow organdie which +brought out the purplish lights in her ink-black hair. + +"Did you have the heart to disturb her?" he asked, reverting to the +subject of Syb's nap. + +"I was forced to. She was on all the cushions, and I needed one for +myself. She took it in good part, though. She told me she had been +disturbed, the night before, by the snoring of the parrot, two rooms +away. As a result, she left me feeling that the apology really ought +to come from me." + +"Is that the way of the race?" Weldon queried, as he set down his +empty cup. "If so, you make me tremble." + +"Why?" + +"Because, without in the least intending it, I have accumulated a +boy." + +She looked up suddenly. + +"How do you mean?" + +"I don't know how. It apparently did itself. It was the day before +we went out to be fired at, and he said his name was Kruger Roberts, +and I fed him some empty jam tins." + +"A huge black boy with bristly hair?" she interpolated. + +"Yes, and a mouth so large that one wonders how his face can hold it +all." + +She sat up alertly, resting her folded arms on the edge of the +table. + +"This becomes interesting. Kruger Roberts is Syb's avowed and lawful +lover." + +Weldon laughed. + +"Mine also, as it appears. As I say, I fed him jam tins. There were +four of them, and they were very jammy. Then we became interested in +the Boers, and I forgot Kruger Roberts. When I came back, yesterday +morning, dead tired and my horse all in a mess, I found Kruger +Roberts calmly sitting on my extra blankets, cleaning my shoes with +Paddy's best dishcloth. Paddy was in a wild state of mutiny, and +told me that that chattering baboon had vowed he was Trooper +Weldon's boy. Since then, I have tried in vain to dislodge him; but +it is no use. The Nig is like a piece of satin, and it is all I can +do to keep my compressed-paper buttons from winking defiance at the +Boers on the northern edge of Sahara." + +Alice Mellen laughed with the air of one who understood the +situation. + +"You builded better than you knew, Mr. Weldon, and your jam tins +will be no house of cards. The Kaffirs are an unaccountable race of +beings, lazy and good-natured. Once let them love or hate, though, +and all their strength goes into the working out of the feeling. +Kruger Roberts obviously has a sweet tooth; the day may come when +your enemies may find it changed to a poisoned fang. Do you want the +advice of one who knows the country?" + +"I do," he assented heartily. + +"Then keep your Kruger Roberts," she said decisively. + +"But what shall I do with him?" + +"Let him do for you." + +"As a valet? I've never been used to such luxury," he protested, +laughing. + +She shook her head. + +"Not only valet. He will be groom, cook, guide, interpreter and, +whether you wish it or not, your chum. Moreover, he will do it all +with the face of a clown and the manner of a tricksy monkey. As a +panacea for the blues, you will find him invaluable." + +There was a little pause. Then she added, with a complete change of +tone, "My cousin has spoken of you so often, Mr. Weldon." + +"And of you," he returned. + +The directness of her answer pleased him. + +"Then we ought to start as friends, and not waste time over mere +acquaintance." + +"I thought there were no acquaintances out here," he answered +lightly. "In camp, our first question is: Friend, or foe?" + +"In the towns, we have every grade between. Often the same person +slides through all the grades in a single day. But you haven't +answered me." + +His eyes met her eyes frankly. + +"About the friendship? I thought that wasn't necessary." + +"Customary, however," she suggested, with a smile. + +"But, as I say, there are no customs here," he retorted. "At least, +I should have said so, this morning. Now I am not so sure." Then he +laughed. "I've bungled that horribly, Miss Mellen. What I meant was +that you have given me a very good time, this afternoon." + +"Prove it by coming again," she advised him. + +"If I may. I don't wish to wear out my welcome; but one hasn't so +many friends in South Africa." + +"What about Kruger Roberts?" she reminded him. + +"That gives me two." + +"And Captain Frazer?" + +Weldon's eyes lighted. + +"Some day, perhaps. I would be willing to wait for that." + +Gravely her glance roved from the alert young Canadian at her side +to the older, more steadfast face across the table. Then she shook +her head. + +"You will not have to wait long, Mr. Weldon?" she said quietly. +"Captain Frazer spoke of you, a week ago. I have known him for +months; I know what, with him, stands for enthusiasm." + +"I wish you might be a true prophet. I would honor you, even here in +your own garden. For the sake of Captain Frazer's regard, I would +give up most things," he replied, too low to be overheard by the +couple who were now chaffing each other above their cooling cups. + +Later on, he wondered a little how far the apparent inconsequence of +her next question was the result of chance. + +"What about Cooee?" she asked, in a voice as low as his own had +been. + +He hesitated. Then he looked up at her steadily. + +"Miss Mellen, I am sure I don't know," he answered gravely. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + + +"Beastly shame that the Boers hadn't buried themselves instead of +the guns!" Carew remarked, as he wrestled with a tough thong of +bully beef which yielded to his jaws much as an India-rubber eraser +might have done. + +Without making any pretence of extracting nutriment from his own +ration, Weldon converted it into a missile and hurled it straight at +his companion. + +"There's this difference," he returned pithily; "a gun is a good +enough fellow to deserve Christian burial. Carew, do you ever yearn +for the fleshpots?" + +Without bringing his jaws to a halt, Carew shook his head. + +"Do you?" he asked, after a prolonged interval. + +"Yes, if they could be brought here; not otherwise. I like the game; +but I also like a little more oats mixed with my fodder. How long is +it since we had a square meal?" + +"How long since we halted in that pineapple grove, coming up from +Durban?" Carew retorted. "That made up for a good deal. You have no +cause to rebel, though. Between Paddy and Kruger Bobs, you stand in +for all the tidbits that are going." + +With a mock sigh, Weldon pointed backward over his shoulder. + +"But unfortunately Kruger Bobs and The Nig are left behind in the +shadow of Naauwpoort's dreary heights. By the way, Carew, does it +ever strike you that these Boers make a lot more fuss over their +spelling than they do over their pronunciation? At home, we'd get as +good results out of dozens less letters." + +"They make as good use of their extra letters as they do of their +extra bullets," Carew returned tranquilly. "They've been sniping, +all the morning long, and they have only hit a man and a quarter +now." + +"Which was the quarter?" + +Turning, Carew displayed a jagged hole in his left sleeve. Weldon +laughed unfeelingly. + +"Can't you keep out of range, you old target? If there's a bullet +coming your way, it's bound to graze you." + +"This is only the fourth. Only one of those really meant business. +Oh, hang it! There they go again!" he burst out, as a distant line +of rocks crackled explosively and, a moment later, a random bullet +opened up the side of his shoe. + +With the swift change of occupation to which the past four months +had accustomed them, they were soon in the saddle and galloping off +across the rolling veldt. Before them, a pair of guns were pounding +away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes, and beyond, over the +crest of the next ridge, scores of thick-set, burly figures were +racing in search of shelter, with a fragment of the Scottish Horse +in hot pursuit. + +Neck and neck in the vanguard raced Weldon and Carew, with Captain +Frazer's huge khaki-colored horse hard on their heels. To Weldon, +the next hour was one of fierce excitement and pleasure. The shriek +of the shells, long since left behind, the flying figures before +them, the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she +stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt, the khaki- +colored desert, dotted with huge black rocks and shimmering with the +heat waves which rose above it towards the midday sun: his pulses +tingled and his head throbbed with the glorious rush of it all. + +And then the slouching figures were met by other slouching figures, +and reluctantly Weldon drew in his horse, as the halt was ordered. +Only madness would prolong the chase against such heavy odds. Mere +sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came +up. The action must wait, while the heliograph flashed its call for +help. Weldon grumbled low into Carew's ear, as the minutes dragged +themselves along, broken only by indeterminate volleys. + +"I have exactly five rounds left," he said at length. "I believe in +obedience, Carew; but, when I get this used up, by jingo, I'll pitch +into those fellows on my own account." + +"Keep cool," Carew advised him temperately. "You always were a +thriftless fellow; you must have been wasting your fire. Oh, I say, +what's the row in the rear?" + +"The column, most likely. It's time, too. Those fellows would be on +us in a minute. Ah ha!" And Weldon drew a quick breath of +admiration, as the guns came up at the gallop under the watchful eye +of the Imperial Yeomanry. + +Once in position on a rise to the left, quickly the guns unlimbered +and opened fire, while the sergeants gathered around the boxes of +spare cartridges on the ground beside the panting ammunition horse. +Then at last came the order for the advance, the order so eagerly +awaited by Weldon, maddened by his long exposure to the bullets of +his unseen foe. In extended order, the squadrons galloped forward +until their goal was a scant five hundred yards away, when of a +sudden a murderous fire broke out from the rocks in front of them, +emptying many a saddle and dropping many a horse. Under such +conditions, safety lay only in an unswerving charge. + +Close on their leaders' heels, the troopers spurred forward and, +revolver in right hand, rifle in left, they charged over the +remaining bit of ground and into the midst of the Boer position. +Briton and Boer met, face to face. Revolvers cracked; Boers dropped. + +Mausers crashed; Britons fell. And then, through and over, the +British charge had passed. + +Even then Weldon found no place for pause. From behind the Boer +position, a band of their reinforcements came galloping down upon +him. Caught between the two lines, the squadrons wheeled about, fell +again upon the broken enemy, dashed through them and, amid the +leaden hail, retired upon their own guns. And now once more the +gunners could reopen fire, and the shells dropped thick and fast. +The moment for a general advance had come. In open order, a thousand +men dashed forward and reached the ridge, only to see the retiring +foe galloping away in all directions across the open veldt. A halt +was ordered, to rest the winded mounts. Pickets were thrown out on +front and flank, while the British awaited their approaching convoy. +That night, the column rested upon the veldt at Vlaakfontein. + +After the rush of the day, its hope and its succeeding +disappointment, Weldon was long in falling asleep. Carew was out on +picket; Captain Frazer, coat off and sleeves rolled to his +shoulders, was busy among the wounded, and Weldon had cared to make +few other close friends in the squadron. Around him, he could hear +the murmurs of other sleepless ones; but he lay silent, his arms +under his head, his face turned upward to the shining perspective of +the stars. In similar perspective there ranged them-selves before +his mind the events of the past twelve weeks. + +Already the month at Piquetberg Road seemed a chapter out of another +volume. It had culminated in that languid afternoon spent around the +tea-table under the wattle tree in the garden, culminated there and +also ended there. With the unexpectedness that marks all things in a +time of war, the next noon found him steaming across the Cape Flats, +with Maitland in sight. Two days later, they were loaded on an empty +hospital ship returning to Durban. Piquetberg Road was child's play +now, for the front was almost in sight. The voyage had been beastly; +but after it had come the real beginning of things. Natal, in those +days of late February, had seemed deserving of its name, a true +Garden of Africa. The crossing was now a memory of heavy grades, of +verdant country, of ripened fruits. There had been the week's delay +at Pietermaritzburg where they had tasted a bit of civilization in +the intervals of completing their outfits; there had been the brief +stop at Ladysmith, already recovered from her hardships of the year +before, then the crossing the border into the Transvaal where the +verdure slowly vanished to give place to the dreary wastes of red- +brown veldt. At Johannesburg, he had manufactured an excuse for a +long letter to Ethel who-- + +"Show a leg there!" + +The sergeant's voice at his ear called him back to the realities of +life. He sat up as alertly as if he had slept upon eider-down. + +By eight o'clock, Weldon was out on the veldt, two miles from camp. +Before him, a force of Yeomanry was guarding the two guns; around +him, a detail from his own squadron protected the flank on the +right. And, still farther to the right, a cloud of yellowish smoke +rose skyward across the yellower sunshine. Then, of a sudden, out +from the heart of the wall of smoke came a muffled thud and roar, +confused at first, growing strident and more detached until, +sweeping from the haze of smoke, five score Boer horsemen rode in a +bolt-like rush, fierce and uncheckable. Without swerving to right or +left, they charged straight towards the Yeomanry drawn up beside the +guns, drove them back and shot down the gunners almost to a man. An +instant later, the guns were whirled about and trained upon their +quondam owners. + +From over his breakfast, that morning, the General raised his head +to listen to the booming of the fifteen-pounders. No need to tell +him that heavy fighting had begun. His experienced ear had taught +him that magazine firing meant business. His hand went in search of +his field-glasses. + +"General, the enemy have captured the guns. The Major asks for +assistance to retake them." + +The General lowered his glasses. Covered with dust, and breathless, +Weldon was before him. + +"Mount every available man, and gallop to the scene of action!" + +Orderlies carried the command to the different regiments. Before the +mounted men could start, the infantry were half-way to the guns. But +already shells were falling into the camp, telling every man that +the guns were in the hands of the Boers. + +In the forefront of the remainder of his squadron, Weldon found +himself borne onward in the rush, straight from the camp to the +right flank of the guns. The broncho's swinging trot had long since +changed to a gallop, and her eyes were flashing with the wicked +light of her old, unbroken days, as she went tearing across the sun- +baked veldt, up and down over the rises and through the rare bits of +thicket at a pace which Weldon would have been powerless to check. +He had no mind to check it. The crisp air, full of ozone and warmed +by the sun, set his cheeks to tingling with its impact. A true +rider, he let his mood follow the temper of his horse and, like a +pair of wild things, they went bolting away far towards the head of +the squadrons. + +And always the firing of the guns grew nearer and faster and more +murderous. + +He took no note of passing moments, none of the miles he had ridden +during the past days. These counted for naught, while, with +photographic distinctness, the picture before him fixed itself +sharply in his mind: the dust-colored troops on the dusty veldt, the +brown-painted guns, the distant line of the enemy's fire and, far to +the eastward, the wall of smoke which was fast sweeping towards them +from the acres of burning veldt. + +"Captain Frazer, the General orders you to take up your position in +the kraal on the extreme right, and to hold it at any cost." + +From his place at the Captain's side, Weldon glanced at the orderly, +then, turning, looked across the veldt to the four gray walls +surrounding the clump of trees a mile away. His hand tightened on +the curb, and he straightened in the saddle, as the Captain led the +way into the purgatory beyond, an orderly purgatory, but crossed +with leaden lines of shot and shell. + +At such moments, the brain ceases to act coherently. When Weldon +came to himself, he was kneeling behind the old gray wall, revolver +in hand, firing full in the faces of the Boer horsemen, scarce +fifteen feet away. Carew, his right foot dangling, had been hustled +to the rear of the kraal where the gray broncho and her mates were +in comparative shelter. + +"Weldon?" + +He looked up in a half-dazed fashion. The wall of smoke was already +shutting down about the retreating Boers. Beside him stood the +Captain, his yellow hair clinging to his dripping face, his blue +eyes, under their fringe of black lashes, glittering like polished +gems. Coated as he was with dust and sweat, his clothing torn and +spotted with the fray, he looked ten times more the gallant +gentleman, even, than when he had met Weldon in the heart-shaped +bit of lawn encircled by the Dents' driveway. Now he held out his +hand. + +"Splendidly done, old man! One doesn't forget such things." + + + + +CHAPTER NINE + + +Captain Frazer had scarcely finished speaking, when the voice of the +General sounded in their ears. + +"A plucky attack and a plucky defeat, Captain Frazer. Kemp is a man +worth fighting. You are not wounded?" + +"Thanks to Trooper Weldon," the Captain told him, with a smile. + +The General's keen glance included them both. + +"Good! And now can you spare me a trusty man? One who can ride? I +must have some despatches at Krugersdorp before midnight. I should +like some one from your squadron." + +The eyes of Captain Frazer and Weldon met. Again the General's keen +glance was on them both; then it concentrated itself upon the +younger man. + +"I am ready," he answered to its unspoken question. + +"You are sure you are fit? It is forty miles, and the rain will be +on us inside of an hour." + +"It makes no difference." + +As he spoke, Weldon felt himself surveyed from hat to shoelace. + +"Very well. Get yourself fed, and come to my tent in an hour. It +will be better to wait until dusk before starting, for these hills +are infested with Boers. Do you know the country?" + +"Partly. I can learn the rest." + +"You need a remount." + +Weldon stroked the little gray broncho. + +"If I had my own horse. Otherwise, I prefer this. I can trust her, +even if she is tired." + +Again the glance swept him over, beginning at the boyish face, +resolute and eager beneath its streaks of red-brown dust. Then, as +Weldon saluted, the General turned and rode away, with the Captain +at his side. + +"You've the making of a man there, Captain Frazer," was his sole +comment. + +Weldon, meanwhile, was allowing the little gray broncho to pick her +own dainty way out of the shambles about her feet. Then, once free +from the litter of men and horses, he turned her head to the spot +where, he had been told, his squadron were gathering together their +diminished forces. As he rode slowly onward, he was surprised to see +how low the sun had dropped. The fighting must have lasted longer +than he had thought. It had been hot and heavy; but at least he had +not funked it. For so much he could be thankful. In so far as he +could recall any of his emotions as he had dashed into range of the +pitiless firing, they had been summed up in a dull rage against the +enemy, mingled with a vague hope that no harm should come to the +plucky little mount. Just one instant's pause he could remember. +That was when he had put forth all his strength to check her pace +until he could readjust a strap that was plainly galling her. And +afterwards? Not even the thoroughbred Nig could have played her part +in the fight with more steady gallantry. Stooping, he eased the bit +and patted the firm gray neck where the mane swept upward for its +arching fall. + +"Boss?" + +He straightened in his saddle. + +"Kruger Bobs! By all special providences, where did you come from?" + +"Naauwpoort. Kruger Bobs come bring Nig to Boss." + +"Kruger Bobs, you're a genius." + +Kruger Bobs vanished behind his smile. + +"Ya, Boss," he replied then. "Boss all right?" + +"Yes, all right." + +"Dutchmans no killed Boss?" + +"No." + +Doubtfully Kruger Bobs shook his sable bristles. He had heard the +firing, such firing as he had never dreamed of until then, and it +seemed to him impossible that any man could come unscathed out of +the heart of it. Of Weldon's being in the very heart of it, no doubt +had once stained the loyal whiteness of his soul. To assure himself +of Weldon's safety, he ambled around the gray broncho in a clumsy +circle. The gray broncho showed her appreciation of the attention by +nipping viciously at the flank of his horse. By Weldon's left side, +Kruger Bobs halted and pointed an accusing forefinger at his knee. + +"Dutchmans hurt Boss," he said anxiously. + +"Where?" + +"Dere." In spite of his effort for sternness, the voice of Kruger +Bobs quavered with anxiety. + +Bending over, Weldon glanced down at the dark red stain on the coil +of khaki serge. Then, all at once, he remembered the sudden stinging +of his leg, just before he had started the gray broncho on her last +mad rush across the lead-swept plain. In the excitement that +followed, the matter had entirely passed out of his mind. Even now +that his attention was called to it, he was conscious of no physical +discomfort. + +"Kruger Bobs go for doctor?" the boy was urging. + +Weldon laughed reassuringly. + +"It's nothing, Kruger Bobs. I've no time to fool with doctors now." + +"What Boss do?" + +"Feed Piggie, eat something, look up Mr. Carew and then get to the +General's tent, inside an hour." + +"What for de big boss soldier?" + +"He wants me." + +"Ya?" Kruger Bobs demanded uneasily. + +"To ride a despatch." + +"Despatch!" Kruger Bobs exploded in hot wrath. "Kruger Bobs go +despatch; Boss go bed." "Can't do it, Kruger Bobs. This is war, and +I've given my word to the General. It was an order, and I had to do +it." Backing his horse off for a step or two, Kruger Bobs sat +looking at his master and shaking his head mournfully. Then he +straightened in the saddle. + +"Boss go; Kruger Bobs go, too," he said, with steady decision. + +Less than an hour later, outside the General's tent Kruger Bobs sat +astride The Nig, with the rein of the gray broncho in his hand. The +clouds, since noon banked low in the eastern horizon, had swept up +across the sky, and already the rain was pattering drearily over the +hunched-up shoulders of Kruger Bobs. Inside the tent, the colloquy +was brief. Twice Weldon repeated over the substance of his +despatches and his instructions regarding their destination. The +despatches were slipped between the layers of his shoe-sole, the cut +stitches were replaced, and Weldon rose to his feet. + +"My nigger has come from Naauwpoort, bringing me a fresh mount," he +said then. "May I take him with me?" + +"What is he?" + +"A Kaffir." + +"From where?" + +"Piquetberg Road." + +"Can you trust him?" + +Weldon's eyes met the eyes of the General steadily. "As I would +trust myself," he answered. + +Five minutes later, Weldon passed out of the tent door. At his +quarters, he dismounted and went in search of a blanket. Muffled in +the thick folds, the horses' feet would make no sound on the hard- +baked earth. Kruger Bobs, meanwhile, went out to reconnoitre in +order to discover a possible gap in the line of Boer pickets. + +The pickets once passed, Weldon mounted once more and, with Kruger +Bobs following close behind, rode carefully away into the inky, +drizzling night. For the first hour, he rode steadily and with +comparative comfort. The excitement of the battle was still in his +blood, its noises ringing in his head, its sights dancing like will- +o'-the-wisps before his eyes. Later, the inevitable reaction would +follow, and the inevitable weariness. Now, refreshed by their +supper, both he and the broncho had come to their second wind, and +they faced the storm pluckily and with unbowed heads. Beside him, +The Nig, fresh and fit as a horse could be, galloped onward steadily +under the weight of Kruger Bobs. It had been at Weldon's own command +that Kruger Bobs had abandoned his raw-boned steed and placed +himself astride the sacred body of the thoroughbred Nig. On such a +night and after such a battle, a horse abandoned was a horse forever +lost. Neither The Nig nor Piggie could be left to any chance +ownership, but neither could Piggie, fresh from a two-day fight, be +left to the mercies of an inexperienced rider. Three inches shorter +than his master, Kruger Bobs weighed fifty pounds the more, and he +rode with the resilient lightness of a feather bed. + +Weldon's hour of rest had been divided in strict ratio between +himself, his friend and his horse. For fully half that period, he +and Kruger Bobs had rubbed the sturdy gray legs and anointed the +scratched neck with supplies taken from the portable veterinary +hospital always to be found in the recesses of the Kaffirs scanty +garments. Then, snatching a hasty meal, with the last of it still in +his hands, Weldon strode away to look for Carew. He found him, +bandaged but jovial, a shattered bone in his foot and his pipe in +his shut teeth. Fortunately the pain bore no relation to the +seriousness of the case, and Weldon left him to his pipe, cheered by +the doctor's assurance that two or three weeks would bring him back +into fighting trim. Carew's own disrespectful comments on the +injured foot were still in his ears, as he entered the tent of the +General. + +By degrees, the night grew dark and darker. Riding eastward with +their backs to the southerly storm, nevertheless now and again the +wind swirled about fiercely, to send the lashing rain against their +faces. Under their feet, the dusty veldt turned to mire, from mire +to a pasty glue, and from glue to the consistency of cream. Bottom +there was none; the bottomlessness of it only became more apparent +when one or other of the horses stumbled into the hole of an ant- +bear. Twice the gray broncho was on her knees; once The Nig came +down so sharply that Kruger Bobs rolled forward out of his saddle, +to land on his back, nose to nose with his astonished mount. Worst +of all, the fever of the fight was dying out from Weldon's veins. +His pulses were slowing down, and the ceaseless jar of the gray +broncho's gallop waked his wounded leg to a pain which fast became +intolerable. + +Kruger Bobs edged closer to his side. + +"Boss sick?" he asked. + +"Not altogether content, Kruger Bobs." + +"Leg?" the boy questioned anxiously. + +"Yes; that--and some other things." + +"Me help Boss?" + +"No, thank you. I'd better let the mess alone." + +"Boss ride Nig?" Kruger Bobs suggested, in the hushed tone in which +all their talk had been carried on. + +"It is better not to change." + +The silence broadened, broken only by the splashing of eight hoofs +in the ever-deepening mire, and by the sighing squeak of wet strap +rubbing on wet strap. Then Kruger Bobs spoke again. + +"Paddy send," he said, as he poked a soft parcel into Weldon's +dangling hand. "He say 'Give it to little Canuck.'" + +Weldon felt and tasted his way into the parcel. It was large, and +filled with savory bits which Paddy must have gleaned here and there +from the general mess, robbing freely from many a greater man, all +for the sake of the "little Canuck." + +It was no time for the discipline which bids a servant eat of the +crumbs from his master's table. For the hour, Kruger Bobs and he +were friends, bound upon one and the same errand. With impartial +hand, Weldon tore the paper across and divided its contents. He only +regretted that convention had forbidden him the trick of smacking +his lips in sign of relish. It would have been good to have the +ability of Kruger Bobs to give audible token of his appreciation of +Paddy's bounty. + +Somewhat refreshed, he straightened in his saddle. + +"Now be careful, Kruger Bobs. There are Boers in these hills," he +warned his companion; "and it would never do for us to be sniped." + +Kruger Bobs came close to his side. + +"Dutchmans kill Kruger Bobs, no matter; kill Boss, no take despatch. +Boss say to Kruger Bobs where de despatch. Kruger Bobs take him to +Krugersdorp, if Boss die." + +And Weldon shivered a little, as the silence dropped again. + +The ridges were steeper now, and came in more swift succession, as +the horsemen plodded wearily along the southern slope of the Rand. +Piggie was breathing heavily; and Weldon, clinging to his saddle +with the purely mechanical grip of the exhausted rider, halted again +and again to rest the plucky little animal whose best was always his +for the asking. Of his own condition he took no heed. It was all in +the game. He would play the game out as long as he could; but his +last move should be, as his first had been, strictly according to +rule. Meanwhile, for two facts he was at a loss to account. Dawning +was still hours distant. Nevertheless, the darkness before him was +blotted and blurred with alternating waves of blue and gray. The +veldt was empty; yet, above the roar of the rain around him, an odd +purring sound was in his ears. Then everything lost itself in his +determination not to allow the saddle to slip from between his tired +knees. + +He roused himself at the challenging voice of a picket. + +"Despatches for General Kekewich," he answered, in a voice which +seemed to his own ears to have come from miles away. + +"Advance and give the countersign." + +Irritably he gathered himself together. + +"I can't, I tell you. I don't know your blasted countersign. I've +despatches from Dixon to General Kekewich. Take me to him at once." + +The colloquy lasted for moments, in a drawn battle of determination. +Its stimulus had waked Weldon from his lethargy; it had also waked +again that fierce and throbbing pain below his knee. He left the +sentry in no doubt, either of the truth of his statement, or of his +mood. Then, with Kruger Bobs at his side, he plodded forward towards +the lights of the town, while he braced himself for a final effort. + +Fifteen minutes later, he reached the second line of pickets. The +gray broncho's head drooped pitifully, as Weldon sat waiting for the +inevitable challenge. It came at last; and Weldon's answering voice +was slow with a weakness which was not all feigned. + +"Despatches from Dixon's column. Take me to the Commandant, please." + +He was dimly aware of a hand on his bridle, dimly conscious that +Piggie was being led forward for a seemingly endless distance. As +they halted in front of a gray stone building, Weldon dimly heard +the tingling of many bells within, then the hurried opening of a +window, and a voice demanding the cause of the disturbance below. He +felt himself going fast; but, gripping his will with all his might, +he pulled himself together long enough to answer,-- + +"Despatches for General Kekewich between the soles of my left boot." + +Then he pitched forward on his broncho's neck. + + + + +CHAPTER TEN + + +"Twelve inches make one foot, six feet make one man, sixty men make +one troop, four troops make one squadron," the monotonous voice ran +on. Then it came to an unexpected finale. "And three squadrons make +the Boer army run." + +The man in the next bed giggled. His wound was in his shoulder, and +it had left his sense of humor unimpaired. As a rule, the fighting +records of the wounded never came inside that long, bed-bordered +room; but there were few within it now who were ignorant of the +plucky ride made by the lean, boyish-looking Canadian trooper. A +part of the story had come by way of the doctor in charge of the +ambulance train which had brought him from Krugersdorp to +Johannesburg, a part of it had come from the trooper's own lips, and +that was the most tragic part of it all. + +Below, in the courtyard of the hospital, Kruger Bobs squatted on his +heels in the sun and waited. Now and then, he vanished to look after +the creature comforts of The Nig and the little gray broncho; now +and then he shuffled forward to demand news from some passer-by +whose sleeve was banded with the Red-Cross badge. Then he shuffled +back to his former post and sat himself down on his heels once more. +Kruger Bobs possessed the racial traits which make it an easy matter +to sit and wait for news. He was also an optimist. Nevertheless, his +face now was overcast and rarely did it vanish behind the spreading +limits of his smile. + +For four days, Weldon lay prostrate and babbled of all things, past, +present and to come. Three names dotted his babblings. One was that +of his mother, one of his captain, and the third that of Ethel Dent. +With all three of them, he appeared to be upon the best of terms. +Finally, on the fifth day, he suddenly waked to the fact that a +woman was bending above him, to wipe his face with a damp sponge. + +He was too weak to rise. Nevertheless, he straightened himself into +a rigid line, and addressed her with dignity. + +"I beg your pardon. Please don't wash my face for me," he said, in +grave displeasure. + +She smiled down at him, with the air of a mother smiling at a +fretful child. The smile irritated him. + +"Doesn't it refresh you?" she asked quietly. + +"No," he answered, with flat, ungracious, mendacity. + +"I am sorry. You have been sleeping heavily, and--" + +He felt his mind slipping out of his own grasp, and he strove to +hold it in his keeping. + +"No matter now," he interrupted hastily. "Please get me--" + +She waited in silence. Then she asked encouragingly,-- + +"What shall I get you?" + +The mind was almost gone; but still he held fast to the edge of it, +as he murmured,-- + +"Some bully beef." + +The nurse turned away. Her lips were smiling; but her eyes clouded, +as the babbling began once more. + +Twenty-four hours later, she was greeted by a white-faced, clear- +headed trooper. + +"Good-morning, nurse," he said coolly. "You see I am better." + +"Much better, Mr. Weldon," she assented cordially. He looked +puzzled. "I thought we fellows in hospital had no names, nothing but +numbers," he answered. + +"It depends. When one meets an old friend, the number isn't quite +the right name for him." + +Turning slightly, he stared up at her with the impassive curiosity +of a man just coming back from The Unknown. Then he shook his head. + +"I am afraid--" he began slowly. + +With a quick gesture, she took off her crisp white cap, uncovering a +heavy pile of ink-black hair. "There!" she said, with a smile. "Does +that make me look more natural, Mr. Weldon? I am Alice Mellen, Cooee +Dent's cousin." + +Instantly he put out his hand, sunburned still, but curiously thin. +The smile on his lips was the boyish, frank smile which Alice had +seen and liked, that afternoon in the garden at home. + +"What good angel brings you here?" he asked eagerly. + +"No angel; merely the lady who rules over the household of Mars. I +am glad to find you again, even if the Johannesburg hospital isn't a +good place for a man. But you mustn't talk now. Later, we can make +up for lost time." + +Impetuously his fingers shut on a fold of her apron. Then his native +instincts and his years of training asserted themselves, and he let +go once more. Nevertheless, his eyes were appealing. + +"Don't go." + +"But I must," she answered, her hands busy with her cap. + +Her tone showed that, like himself, she too had learned the meaning +of an order. He yielded to its quiet firmness. + +"If you must. But, before you go, tell me this: have I been off my +head?" + +She nodded in assent. + +He frowned. + +"Sorry," he said briefly. "Please answer me honestly. Have I mumbled +things and made a blasted fool of myself?" + +It was still two days before he was allowed to talk to his own +satisfaction. Then, one afternoon in her rest hour, Alice Mellen let +him have his way and, seated by his cot, she answered tersely to a +raking fire of terse questions. + +"How long have I been here?" + +"Just a week." + +"How did I get here?" + +"Hospital train from Krugersdorp." + +"What for?" + +"You had a touch of fever. We could treat you better here." Her +replies were man-like in their brevity. + +"Fever? I thought it was a Mauser bullet." + +"It was. Your leg was not so bad; but the long ride and the exposure +to the storm--" + +He interrupted her. + +"What do you know about my ride?" he asked. + +Her answer showed that the woman was not lost in the nurse. + +"Everybody knows of your ride. Even in these days of plucky deeds, +we are proud of you." + +He shook his head, though the color came into his cheeks, brown +beneath their pallor. + +"It was nothing. I did my duty." + +"So Kruger Bobs has informed us." + +"Kruger Bobs? Is he here?" + +This time, she laughed outright. + +"I should say he was. For a week, he has been sitting exactly in the +path of the doctors, waiting for news. Twice he has been ordered +off; but he merely hitches over to the other end of the steps and +refuses to budge farther. We discovered him, the first night you +were here, by having the bead surgeon fall headlong over him, as he +went down the steps. Kruger Bobs doesn't show up well, on a dark +night." + +Weldon clasped his hands at the back of his head. + +"If I thought you were using American slang, Miss Mellen, I should +contradict you," he answered, with a touch of his old humor. "I can +remember at least one dark night when Kruger Bobs made an excellent +showing." + +She nodded. + +"We have bad a few Americans here before, Mr. Weldon. I think I +understand." + +"How long have you been here?" he asked, after a pause. + +"Ten weeks." + +"And you like it?" + +"Why else should I be here?" + +"From a sense of duty." + +"Is that what brought you out?" + +"No. My coming was inevitable. It seemed a part of me that I +couldn't help." + +"But you wished to come?" she queried. + +"Of course. But that was only a Dart of it. I have wished to do +things before, and have done them. This was quite different. It all +seemed a part of Fate, and I walked through it, like a puppet with +somebody else's hand pulling the strings." He paused and shook his +head. "It is no use. I can't make you understand it. I acted freely +and did just what I chose; but yet, all the time, I felt as if it +had all been arranged for me, whole generations ago." + +Thoughtfully she bent forward, straightened the coverings above his +wounded leg; then sat up again. Then she shook her head a little +regretfully. + +"No," she said. "I am afraid I don't understand. Perhaps it is +because I am selfish; but I usually feel as if I made my plans, +regardless of Fate." + +"What about our meeting here?" he asked quizzically. + +She answered in the same tone. + +"Wait until we see what comes out of it. Fate, if one believes in +such a thing, only works in an endless chain." + +"And the broken links?" + +"According to your notion, there should be none," she retorted. +"Fate ought to be a better workman than that." + +"Than what?" + +"Than spoiling her work as she goes along. If there's any chain at +all, it should be endless and durable. But a man with a Mauser hole +in his leg and a fever in his head has no business to be talking of +Fate. Let's talk about Ethel, instead." + +He settled himself back comfortably. + +"Perhaps it amounts to the same thing, in the long run." + +"Perhaps. I don't see how, though. Anyway, Ethel wouldn't be pleased +with the notion. She is absolutely independent, and generally +arranges things according to her own sweet will." + +"Where is she now?" + +"In Cape Town," Alice answered, quite unaware of her own lack of +truth. + +"And well?" + +"Gloriously. In fact, as far as I can learn, Cooee always is well. +Just now she is having a wonderfully gay time. Since Lord Roberts +went back to England, Cape Town has been full of people, resting +there before sailing for home." + +"Resting?" + +"Haven't they earned the right?" she questioned, in swift challenge +to the quiet scorn in his tone. + +"Even if the battles are over, the fighting isn't," he answered +tersely. "The glory doesn't lie entirely in the pulverizing the Boer +army; there's a little left for the men who are sweeping up the +pieces." + +Her trained eye saw the rising color in his face. Swiftly she +changed the subject. + +"Glory for all, enough and to spare," she replied. "But, as I say, +Cape Town is crowded with officers, lying up for repairs, and Ethel +is queen bee among them. It's not only for herself; it is what you +would call Fate. She happens to be the only girl of her set who is +just out from London; she had met a good many of them there, and now +she is holding a veritable salon. She even has one sacred teacup, +set up on a high shelf ever since the day that Baden-Powell used +it." + +Weldon smiled. + +"Miss Dent is a hero-worshipper," he commented. + +"So are we all, in certain directions. Moreover, most women like +their heroes to have a little personality. One can't make one's +admiration stick to a blank wall of impersonal perfection." + +Weldon's mind moved swiftly backwards to two blue, black-fringed +eyes glowing out from a dust-streaked face. + +"No," he assented; "but neither can one ever really be chums with +his hero. Or, even if he can, he doesn't care to try the +experiment." + +Alice glanced at her watch, rose, then lingered. + +"I am not so sure of that," she replied thoughtfully. "I want the +pedestal of my hero to be a low one; and Cooee declares that she +wishes no pedestal at all. If her hero is worthy of the name, he +must bear inspection even from above. The worst flaw of all might +lurk in the very crown of his head." + +Half an hour later, she came back again. + +"Mr. Weldon, do you feel strong enough to see Kruger Bobs for +exactly five minutes?" she asked. + +The gray eyes lighted. + +"For ten times five," he answered eagerly. + +Kruger Bobs shuffled in upon the heels of an orderly. Under his +bristly hair, his face was a study of mingled emotions which +culminated in his mouth. A grin of pure happiness had drawn up the +upper lip; at sight of his prostrate master, the lower one was +rolling outward in a sudden wave of pure pity. Beside the cot, he +halted and stood looking down at Weldon with eyes which, for the +moment, transformed his lazy, jolly, simian face into a species of +nobility. Lying back on his pillow, Weldon waited for him to speak, +waited with an odd, restless beating of the heart for which he was +wholly at a loss to account. + +The pause between them lengthened. At last Kruger Bobs drew his +mangy brown felt hat across his eyes. + +"I's here, Boss," he said simply. + +However, it was enough. + +The next morning found Weldon sitting up. A clean-cut hole through +the flesh of a man who has lived a clean-cut life is swift in +healing. Now that his fever had left him, his superb vitality was +asserting itself once more, and he rallied quickly. Meanwhile, it +was good to be able to sit up and eat his breakfast like a civilized +being. Weldon had all the detestation of the average healthy being +for invalid ways. Moreover, he longed to be up and doing. With his +growing strength, the orderly, noiseless routine of the hospital +came upon his nerves. One of the nurses always walked on the points +of her toes; and he was conscious of a wild longing to throw a +pillow at her, as she went diddling to and fro past him, a dozen +times a day. The doctor, a man of iron nerve and velvet hand, was a +daily delight to him. And there was always Alice, frank, friendly +and altogether enjoyable. During the past three days, their liking +had grown apace. Absolutely feminine, yet with the healthy +impersonality of a growing boy, Alice Mellen was a born comrade, and +Weldon enjoyed her just as, in her place, he would have enjoyed +Carew. + +She came down the ward, that morning, and paused beside his chair. + +"You look like your old self at last," she said, as she held out her +hand in congratulation. + +"I might echo your words," he answered, while he looked up into her +eyes, shining with merriment and with something that yet seemed to +him closely akin to annoyance. "Granted the apron, you might be +pouring tea at home." + +"Not tea; but malted milk, in these latter days," she said, +laughing. "But I am about to retire from your case. May I introduce +your new nurse, Mr. Weldon?" + +His reluctant assent was changed to eager greeting. Light, swift +steps came down the room; a tall figure stopped at his side in the +full glare of a sunshiny window which all at once seemed focussing +its light upon waving strands and heaped-up coils of vivid yellow +hair. + +"Cooee!" Then, too late, he bethought himself of his manners and +tried to bite the word off short. + +Linking her arm in that of her cousin, the girl stood looking down +at him with merry, mocking blue eyes. + +"Invalids are supposed to have privileges denied to well men," she +answered demurely. "It might perhaps be Cooee here, to-day; but it +will have to be Miss Dent, to-morrow, when you are back in the field +again. After all, it is hardly worth while to make the change, +Trooper Weldon." + + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + + +Upon one side, at least, the meeting between the two cousins on the +previous night had been wholly unexpected. + +Late that afternoon, an ambulance train had come in, loaded with men +from the over-crowded field hospital at Krugersdorp, and for hours +Alice had been in ceaseless attendance upon the surgeon in charge. +Little by little, the girl had found her nerves steadying down to +the task in hand; nevertheless, the past ten weeks, in return for +the increase of her poise, had taken something from her vitality. +Quickness of eye, firmness of hand, evenness of temper: all these +may be gifts of the gods. Their use is a purely human function, and +proportionately exhausting. The girl's one salvation lay in the fact +that her quick sympathy with her patients was for the most part +impersonal. Up to this time, Weldon had been her only patient whom +she had known outside the routine duties of her hospital life. In a +sense, it had been a relief to meet some one whom she knew to be of +her own world; in a sense, the case had worn upon her acutely. She +could watch with a greater degree of stolidity the sufferings of +other men. + +Among her new charges, that day, only one had made any distinct +impression upon her overworked brain. That was a jovial young +fellow, handsome as Phoebus Apollo, in spite of a slashing scar +across one cheek. He had answered to her questions regarding his +wounded foot with an accent so like that of Weldon that +involuntarily she lingered beside him to add a word of cheery +consolation. His was her final case, that night. As she wearily +turned towards her own room, she made no effort to analyze her +exhaustion. + +She found Ethel, still in her hat and jacket, sitting on the edge of +her own narrow cot. + +"Cooee Dent!" + +"Yes, dear." The girl's tone was nonchalant, even while the telltale +color came into her cheeks. + +"What are you doing here?" + +"Visiting you, of course." + +"Visiting me! But, Cooee, I really don't know where I can put you." + +With perfect composure, Ethel passed her hand over the surface of +the cot. + +"Oh, I think this nutmeg-grater will carry two. Still, Alice, I must +say that your hospitality isn't exactly exuberant." + +Alice dropped into a chair and wearily pushed her hair still farther +back from her forehead. + +"But, Cooee--" + +"Aren't you glad to see me?" Ethel demanded. + +"Certainly. You are always a dear; but--I wish I had known you were +coming." + +Ethel raised her brows, and a slight edge came into her voice. + +"If you don't want me, Alice, I can go home in the morning." + +Dimly aware that her cousin was fencing with an invisible adversary, +nevertheless Alice Mellen was too tired, that night, to range +herself upon the side of that adversary. As far as she was +concerned, Ethel had dropped upon her like a bolt from the blue. She +was too busy, too absorbed in her patients to give more than a +passing thought to even her most intimate cousin. And besides, +Weldon--She pulled herself together sharply. + +"Of course I want you, Cooee dear. It is only a bit sudden, and I am +trying to think what to do with you." + +Now and then Ethel turned wayward. This was one of the times. + +"If you didn't know what to do with me, Alice, then why did you ask +me to come?" + +"But I didn't," Alice responded, too astonished to modify her denial +into a polite form of fibbing. + +Ethers tone was gently superior. + +"Oh, yes; you did." + +"When?" + +"When you were leaving home. You said then that I must be sure to +come up to spend a week with you, early in the winter." Then her +accent changed. "You poor tired child!" she said, as she rose and +crossed to her cousin's side. "This work is too hard for you; you +look as if you had been fighting the Boers themselves, instead of +merely enteric and bullet holes. I think it is just as well that I +am here to look out for you, for a few days." + +Alice lifted her hand to the hand that lay against her cheek. + +"I am glad to see you, Cooee dear. I am only so surprised that it +makes me slow to tell you so. If you can sleep here, to-night, I can +find a better place for you in the morning." + +"This will do," Ethel answered, while she slowly drew the pins from +her hat. "It is neat, even if it isn't spacious. Really, Alice, I +should have let you know; but it was only just as I was starting +that I found I could come at all. Father is at home, and mother is +unusually well, and I thought I would best make the most of the +opportunity." + +Crossing the room to the table, she stood with her back to her +cousin, while she smoothed the feathers in her hat. Then, without +turning, she asked abruptly,-- + +"How is Mr. Weldon?" + +"Better." + +"Out of all danger?" + +"Yes. Not that he has been in much danger, anyway." + +"Oh, I thought--" + +Then silence fell. + +Alice, meanwhile, was busy with a swift calculation. Five days, in +these troubled times, for a letter to go from Johannesburg to Cape +Town; five days since Ethel could have left Cape Town. And her one +letter to Ethel since Weldon's arrival had been posted just three +days before. + +"How did you know Mr. Weldon was here?" she asked sharply. + +Ethel's back was still turned towards her. Nevertheless, she could +see the scarlet tide mounting to the ears and to the roots of the +vivid gold hair. + +"Why, your letter, Alice," Ethel answered composedly. + +Alice's laugh was sharp and edged with malice. + +"Yes, dear. My letter, telling you of his being here, will be +delivered at your house to-morrow morning." + +"Oh, then I must have mixed things up," Ethel replied, as she turned +to face her cousin. "Probably Captain Frazer told me." + +"Captain Frazer?" + +"Yes, he came down to Cape Town, just before I left there. I +remember now, he was the one who told me. He was near Mr. Weldon at +Vlaakfontein; he knew all about his awful ride into Krugersdorp, and +I believe he did say be was to be brought here." + +For a moment more, the two pairs of eyes, the blue and the black, +met in steady warfare, neither one yielding in the least, neither +one quite aware how much she was betraying to the other. + +"Well, what of it?" Ethel demanded tempestuously then. + +"Nothing, only--are you sure you were wise to come?" + +The blue eyes blazed. + +"And what do you mean by that, Alice? You asked me to visit you +here, to see your work among your patients. I have come. If I came +at all, it had to be now. I can't always leave home for a week at a +time. And I can't help it, can I, if Mr. Weldon happens to be one of +your patients?" + +"No; you can't," Alice admitted slowly. "It only remains to be seen +whether you would care to help it, if you could." + +Again Ethel crossed the room. This time, she dropped down at her +cousin's side. + +"Don't let us argue about it and get cross at each other, dear. If I +have made a mistake in coming now, I am sorry. But I am here. Let me +stay a few days; I may be able to help you a little. Anyway, I +promise not to be a trouble to you. It is so long since I have seen +you, Alice. And--" Again the silence dropped. + +Alice roused herself from the reverie which was creeping over her. +She was glad to see Ethel, unfeignedly glad. The bright, animated +presence of her cousin, during the next few days, could not fail to +be a tonic. And, as Ethel had said, she herself had been the one to +suggest the first idea of the winter visit. Chance and Captain +Frazer had decreed that it should take place now, when Alice's hands +were immoderately full of work. But then, so much the better. Ethel +could make herself invaluable among the convalescents. She herself +had not put on her Red-Cross badge for the sake of taking her rest +hour at the bedside of Trooper Harvard Weldon. + +Half undressed, Ethel paused, hair brush in hand. "You can't imagine +how tired I am, Alice. It is a terrible journey up here nowadays. I +was in terror of a train-wreck at any moment," she said drowsily. +"Don't let me sleep too long in the morning, because," she pulled +open her eyes long enough to dart a mocking glance over her shoulder +at her cousin; "because you know, right after breakfast, you are +going to let me begin to help you take care of some of your people." + +From behind her own sheltering veil of ink-black hair, Alice +laughed. + +"Cooee, you are a dear; but you're rather a trial," she said slowly. +"However, now that you are here, I think I shall ask the P. M. O. to +set you to work to watch over the needs of Mr. Weldon. He won't be +here much longer; but, while he stays, I shall consider him your +patient." Then, brushing aside the veil, she bent forward and +touched her lips to her cousin's cheek. + +"Might I ask what brought you up here, Miss Dent?" Weldon asked, the +next day. + +Beside him sat Ethel, her hands demurely clasped in the lap of her +broad white apron. + +"My cousin's invitation," she replied. + +"Then Miss Mellen knew you were coming?" + +"Yes. She asked me to come, early in the winter." + +"Strange she said nothing about it! We were talking about you, only +yesterday." + +"She didn't know, even then, that I was so imminent," Ethel +answered. "I took her quite by surprise, at the last." + +"A surprise all around, then," he said, with a boyish laugh. "I was +astonished to find Miss Mellen here, and you must have been equally +astonished to find me. If only Captain Frazer would appear, our old +quartette would be complete." + +"I am afraid we must get on without him," she said lightly. + +"Unfortunately, yes. I wonder where he is." + +"In Cape Town," she replied unexpectedly. + +"Really? What is he doing there?" + +"Don't expect me to tell. It has something to do with a staff; but +whether he carries it, or becudgels recruits with it, I have no idea +at all." + +"He hasn't left the Scottish Horse?" + +"In fact; but not in name. Your regiment is still in the Transvaal; +but he keeps a sort of vicarious connection with it. Please don't +expect me to grasp military details, Mr. Weldon. I merely repeat the +facts, parrot fashion; you must interpret them to suit yourself." + +He laughed again. Already, in that one morning, he appeared to have +taken a long stride towards the regaining of his old self. + +"You are a perfect gazette, Miss Dent, the first bit of news that +has crept inside this place. Where did you get all your +information?" + +"From Captain Frazer." Her rising color belied her unconcerned tone. + +"You have seen him, then?" + +"Yes. He is usually very good about calling, whenever he comes to +Cape Town." + +"And is he well?" + +"Absolutely. Also quite enthusiastic over his troopers and the work +they did at Vlaakfontein." + +"Were--many--" + +She understood. + +"Not very many; but several were wounded. Worst of all, one or two +of the wounded ones were shot by the Boers. Mr. Carew told me that +he left a dozen of your men in the hospital at Krugersdorp." + +"Carew? Have you seen him, too, Miss Dent?" + +"Didn't you know he was here?" + +He stared at her in blank amazement. + +"Here in Johannesburg?" + +"Here in this hospital." + +"In what shape?" + +"Hilarious in his mind, and with a foot that is coming out right in +course of time. Didn't Alice tell you?" + +"No." + +"Strange. She took me to see him, this morning, on my way here, +because he was such a promising patient. She was quite surprised to +find we were old acquaintances." + +"Oh," Weldon said slowly. "I begin to see. Miss Mellen had never met +Carew, so she had no idea we were friends. What a curious snarl it +all is!" + +"The hand of Fate is in it," Ethel assented idly. + +"Do you believe in Fate, too?" + +"Surely. Why not?" + +"Nothing, only your cousin said you didn't." + +The girl frowned. + +"Alice doesn't know all my mental processes," she said a little +severely. + +"She didn't pretend to. We were speaking of Fate, yesterday, of the +way certain events in one's life seem absolutely inevitable; at +least, I was. Then the conversation worked around to you, and Miss +Mellen suggested that you usually rose superior to Fate," Weldon +explained at some length. + +Once again, Ethel felt the note of finality in his tone. For an +instant, she shut her lips. Then she reverted to the main question. + +"How do you mean inevitable?" + +"As if you chose your path, and then found that, for always, it had +been the only thing for you to do. That's not so clear, I know; but +I can't put it much better." + +"For instance?" + +"For instance, my coming out here when I did. I was interested in +the war; but there was no real question of my coming, until the +month I sailed. Then, all of a sudden, I seemed to know why it was +that I had spent my life on horseback. They told me in England that +the real war was over. When I landed at Cape Town, I found out that +the one thing needed was a man who could ride, and shoot straight. +From the day I sailed from home, until now, I have been like an +actor walking through a part that some one else has written for him. +I have chosen nothing; it all has been inevitable." + +She rose to her feet, and stood leaning on the back of her chair. + +"In that case, Mr. Weldon, you must include our meeting in your +scheme of things," she said, with a smile. + +His answering smile met her smile with perfect frankness. + +"I sometimes wonder if that wasn't the most inevitable part of it +all." + + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + + +The red-brown veldt stretched away to the sky-line, sixty miles +distant. Level as it looked, it was nevertheless a succession of +softly rolling ridges dotted with clumps of dried sagebrush and +spotted here and there with heaps of black volcanic rocks. Far to +the northward, a thin line of poplars and willows marked the bed of +a river. Beyond that, again, the air was thick with smoke from acres +of burning veldt. The days were full of dust, and the nights were +full of frost; it was the month of June, and winter was upon the +land. + +The camp was taking a well-earned rest. For days, the men had swept +over the veldt, following hard on the trail of a Boer general who +only made himself visible now and then by a spatter of bullets, when +his convoy train was delayed at a difficult ford. It had been a week +of playing pussin-the-corner over a charred and dusty land, where +the only roads were trails trodden out to powder by the hoofs of +those that had gone before. Both men and mounts were wellnigh +exhausted, and the officers had decreed a halt. + +The strain had been intense. Now, with the relaxing of it, its +memory vanished, and the halt swiftly took upon itself the +appearance of a school holiday. Laughing and chaffing each other, +groups of men loitered here and lounged there, smoking, writing +letters, and taking stout, unlovely stitches in their time-worn +khaki clothing. At one side of the camp was the tent of the mess +sergeant, equipped like a portable species of corner grocery. Near +by, Paddy apparently was in his element, presiding over his camp- +kitchen, a vast bonfire encircled with a dozen iron pots. At the +farther edge of the camp Weldon was umpiring a game of football +between his own squadron and a company of the Derbys. Owing to the +athletic zeal of the hour, it was big-side, and Weldon was too busy +in keeping his eye upon so many players to pay much attention to his +own loneliness. + +In all truth, however, he was lonely. The week since he had rejoined +his squadron had dragged perceptibly. Captain Frazer was in Cape +Town; Carew was still in hospital at Johannesburg where, under the +eyes of Alice Mellen and her cousin, he was fast resuming his old +finical habits. Dingy and veldt-stained though he might be, Carew at +heart would always remain the exquisite. However, exquisite that he +was bound to be, he was even more the soldier, and his gay eyes had +clouded, as he had wrung Weldon's hand in parting. + +"Lucky dog!" he said enviously. "I am off duty for two weeks more, +and you are going back to the thick of things. One must take it as +it comes; but I say, old man, don't forget me when the bullets begin +to pelt at you again." + +And Weldon had been better than his promise. He had thought of +Carew, day and night, for the entire week, thought of him and missed +him acutely. Carew was an ideal comrade in that he never, under any +circumstances, took himself in earnest. + +A leg which will carry a man on horseback is by no means fit for +football. Weldon, finished player that he was, found it tame work to +umpire a team whose sole idea of tactics was to get there in any way +that offered itself. Half an hour sufficed; then, appointing an +understudy, he walked away in search of Paddy. From the midst of a +torrent of instructions to his quartette of black subordinates, +Paddy's voice sang out a cheery greeting. + +"Come along, little feller! Come and get something to eat. It's +hungry you ought to be, the day, after the way you've been walking +all over the country on horseback and an empty stomach. Try this, as +a sample of your dinner, and sit down by the edge of the fire, +whilst, and tell me how it tastes." + +The iron spoon scraped lustily over the iron dixey. Then Weldon +returned them both with a low bow. + +"Like yourself, Paddy, short and sweet." + +Paddy brandished the spoon, weapon-wise. + +"Short is it, you little Canuck! So is a pepperpot short; but it +holds a hell of a flavor. Leave Paddy a gun in his hand, and his +short legs will keep up with your long ones, when it's the firing +line that's before him." + +"The old sing-song, Paddy. Give us something new." + +"So will I, when I get my wishing. Till then, you'll hear it over +and over again. A man of my temper, little one, will never rest +content at a firing line that's all surrounded about with ten-quart +pots of boiling beef." + +"Why don't you resign, then?" + +"Resigned! How can I be resigned? I'm a chunk of dynamite in a suet- +pot, hard to manage and ready to go off at any time that something +strikes me. Meantime, I am like what they say is dirt: matter out of +place." + +"Then why don't you get out?" Weldon queried. + +"I am out of place now, I'm telling you," Paddy returned, as he +pensively rested his cheek upon the bowl of the spoon in his hand. + +"Yes; but why not refuse to stay here as cook?" + +Sorrowfully Paddy shook his head, spoon and all. + +"That's what I did do, little one." + +"And what happened?" + +"This." The spoon came into evidence once more. "They blarneyed me +up and they blarneyed me down, and they said nobody could cook like +Paddy. Anybody could shoot a baker's dozen of Boers; but only one +man in the camp could fill up the boys to give them a fit and level +stomach for the battle. And here I am, and here I'm like to be, till +the new moon in the heavens turns to a curly strip of bully beef. If +I'd known the Captain was about to escape to Cape Town, it's Paddy +that would have escaped with him, hanging on to the tail of his +coat. Saint Patrick's vipers! What's that?" + +A hum, a spat, and a little spurt of red dust rolled lazily upward. +Then another hum followed. There was a scurry of men, a squeak of +leather, the light clashing of rifles snatched from the stack; and +the troops were off. + +Beside them, the nearer hills rose in brick-red patches against the +sky. Farther away, the brick color changed to gray and, still +beyond, to misty purple. Before them rolled the open, khaki-colored +veldt dotted in one direction by a ragged spot of black that flowed +over the crest of each ridge and vanished from sight for a moment +before rising from the hollow to flow over the crest of the ridge +beyond. And towards the ragged spot of black there rushed onward, at +an ever-lessening distance, the khaki-colored streak of the foremost +rank of C Squadron, led for the moment by a little gray broncho +whose hoofs touched the ground only to spurn it backwards. + +The chase was long and hot; but the end was in sight. Directly +across the path of the quarry stretched a low line of willows +showing the course of the stream beneath, and, a few hundred feet +this side of the willows, scattered clumps of green marked as many +scattered dwellings. By the largest clump, the quarry halted and +turned to bay, and the pursuers, unable to check their speed, rode +down upon it and crashed through its ranks, regardless of the +pitiless. fire, then, sweeping around on the arc of a mammoth +circle, took up their position in the shelter of a walled kraal, +only a few hundred yards away. Then for a moment they halted, face +to face and in absolute silence. + +Even after her mad race, the little gray broncho was breathing +deeply and easily; but Weldon could feel his own breath come short. +Banged in open order before him were a full half-hundred of the +enemy, bearded, black-coated, bandoliered, grim and stolid and ripe +of years. Beside him were the new captain of the troop and seven +men. They were and alert; but there were only nine of them in all. +And the rest of the troop, it seemed to him, were half the veldt- +length away. Vaguely he wondered whether their distant khaki coats +would look as purple as did the distant khaki-colored hills. Then, +quite inconsequently, as he raised his rifle, he noticed that one of +the Boers had a button hanging loosely on its threads from the front +of his coat. He was rather surprised, the next instant, to see the +Boer pitch forward headlong in the dust. It was some time afterward +that he thought to connect the falling with the crack of his own +rifle. + +Piggie bounded sidewise, as the mount of the trooper next Weldon +dropped and lay whimpering like a hurt child. Then she steadied to +the touch of Weldon's hand upon her neck. It was not the first time +he had guided her, unscathed, through a leaden shower. She would +trust him yet once again. As he raised his rifle, her wiry legs were +as steady as four iron rods. He saw another Boer fall and yet +another and a third; but one khaki-colored figure lay stiffly beside +him, and another was dragging itself away to a corner of the kraal, +to give greater space to its unwounded comrades. And still the +bullets whizzed about them, thick and ever thicker. + +Piggie shied again. This time a bullet had grazed her neck, and the +sight of the narrow sear filled Weldon's mind with a dull, +unreasoning rage. Brutal to aim at the plucky mounts who bore their +riders so gallantly into the flight where all defensive power was +denied themselves! He paused long enough to pat the firm gray neck, +to feel the answering pressure against his hand. Then he raised his +rifle again and took careful aim, as he breathed a wordless prayer +that chance might guide his bullet into the man who had scarred his +faithful friend. Another Boer dropped; Weldon hoped it was by his +own bullet. Then both he and the gray broncho pricked up their ears +as, close on their flank, they heard the beating of galloping hoofs. + +In the shock of the scrimmage that followed, there was scant time to +take thought of friend or of foe. On the heels of his new captain +as, of old, he had been on the heels of Captain Frazer, Weldon and +the gray broncho were in the thick of the fight. Then, as the Boers +sullenly fell backwards, Weldon became aware of a familiar voice in +his ears. + +"Whisht, little feller! It's Paddy," the voice said in a spooky +undertone, as its owner ranged up alongside the gray broncho. + +"Paddy!" Weldon stared at him in unfeigned astonishment. "What in +the name of heaven are you doing here, man?" + +With perfect composure Paddy squared himself in the saddle. + +"Little Canuck dear, as I told you before, heaven is a state of +eternal peace, and therefore an undesirable abode in these hot +times. I prefer a whiff of brimstone, myself; and, by the powers, +I've been getting, it." As he spoke, he took off his hat and showed +a neat trio of holes in the left brim. + +"But how did you come here, Paddy?" Weldon asked again. + +"Took your advice to heart, my jewel, kicked over my pan of fat and +jumped into the fire. Which, being put into straight English, I +swiped a horse and rode off with the rest of the boys on the tail of +the serpent." Weldon gasped, as he realized the enormity of the +crime. Then he laughed. In his haste to gain possession of a mount, +Paddy had taken no thought for his armament. His sole weapon was the +huge iron spoon, still grasped in his left hand. + +"Whose horse did you take, Paddy?" + +"I d'know. I never looked to see. I popped my toe into the stirrup +and came away, hot-foot; but," Paddy paused for a deliberate wink; +"as I was leaving camp, I thought I heard the voice of that pigeon- +toed little cockney Parrott, him that used to stub his toes on the +wall at Piquetberg Road, acalling out that some one had mislaid his +horse and he couldn't find it. I was sorry; but I was in a divil of +a haste and couldn't stop to condole with him then." + +"But, Paddy, they'll run you out of camp for this," Weldon +remonstrated dutifully. + +Paddy's shoulder mounted towards his left ear. "I'm thinking I have +run myself out, and that's just what I was meaning to do. I've been +a captain with four lieutenants under me. Any one of them can sling +the pepper and the salt, and they're welcome; but not one has the +fighting blood in his veins as I have. Let them mind their kettles +and leave me to mind the enemy." + +"And if they won't let you go back?" + +"Then I'll ship myself straight down to Cape Town, and take service +with Captain Frazer. He can fight with the best of them, and he +knows I'm a man. It's riding at his heels I'll be, henceforth and +forevermore." + +Turning, Weldon looked long into the jovial Irish face, and at the +hunchy figure that joggled to and fro in the saddle, with no heed to +the rhythm of his horse's pace. + +"Who taught you to ride, Paddy?" he asked at length. + +For an instant, a lump in Paddy's left cheek betrayed the +whereabouts of his tongue. Then quietly he made answer, "Sure, +little feller, it must have been the grace of Saint Patrick. Nobody +else has ever took a hand in the training of me. But I'll back him +against all the riding masters in London and Aldershot." + +And the result showed that Paddy's confidence was not misplaced. + + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + + +By midwinter, the war had become a series of guerrilla raids, of +sweeping drives and of occasional skirmishes. The epoch of the +infantry had passed, and it was the day of the mounted man. The +home-going of the great Field Marshal, six months before, had been +followed by the return to England of transports loaded with foot +soldiers. The hour, the country and the enemy all demanded the man +on the horse. With Lord Kitchener in the field and the colonies +aiding the mother country, the outcome was only a matter of time; +but few could as yet say when the fulness of that time should be at +hand. + +"But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my mind," Weldon said +thoughtfully. + +"How do you mean?" Ethel Dent threw the question at him a little +defiantly. + +"About going home." + +"Surely, you aren't going now?" + +He winced at the accent. + +"I am not sure. I volunteered for six months. My time is up; I paid +my official visit to the Citadel yesterday." + +"Are you needed at home?" + +"No. At least, not in any real sense." + +"But you are needed here." + +"There are enough without me, and the need will not last long." + +"Don't be too sure. On the Dunottar Castle, there were plenty of +people who laughed at you men for coming out to volunteer, after the +war was over. You have proved that they laughed at nothing. Prove it +again." + +Rising, he walked the length of the room and stood looking out from +the long front window. The bamboo screens and the willow chairs were +gone from their veranda corner; the flower-boxes were empty now, and +Table Bay gleamed coldly back at him in the late afternoon sun of +midwinter. Then he turned around to face the girl, seated where her +golden hair seemed to him to catch and hold all the light centering +about the gay little tea-table. + +"Don't," he said with some impatience. "Your arguments all echo my +own wish. I am pulled in two ways at once. At home, the mother is +growing restless. Since Vlaakfontein, she has lost her nerve, and +her heart is set on my meeting her in London in October." + +Deliberately Ethel made a neat triangle out of three unused spoons. + +"Well?" she said, without looking up. + +"Piggie and I have had a smell of powder," he answered briefly. "We +want more." + +"Well?" she said again. + +"The question is, are we likely to get it." + +"Not in England; not even in Cape Town," she answered, smiling at +the spoons before her. + +"Then where?" + +"Wherever the Boers are thickest." + +"Yes; but, after all, you are talking platitudes, Miss Dent," he +said, with recurring impatience. + +This time, she lifted her dark blue eyes to his face and allowed +them to rest there for a full minute. + +"But you forbade me to argue," she said demurely. + +He dropped down into a chair and faced her resolutely. + +"Now look here, Miss Dent, I can't talk shop in tea-table English. +In fact, shop has no place at a tea-table, anyway. Still, you were +the one to start it. Let's have it out. I don't want to funk, at +this late day. If there is any fighting to be done, I want a hand in +it. I went into a game of a certain length; I hope I played up, and +stuck to the professional rules. That game is played out. I am not +Trooper Weldon of the Scottish Horse. I am plain Harvard Weldon +again and, to be quite frank, I don't like the change from khaki to +tweed. But about going in for another game: it all depends on what +the game will be. If it plays itself out, well and good; if it just +dribbles on and on, without accomplishing anything, even an end, +then I can see no use in going in for it. Fighting is one thing; +having a picnic all over the face of South Africa is quite another +matter. And, for the life of me, I can't see which is bound to +come." + +There was a minor cadence to the final phrase. Then he fell silent, +and sat staring at the rug, while Ethel, leaning back in her chair, +studied him at her ease. All in all, she was pleased with the result +of her study. Always frank and likable, Weldon had developed +wonderfully during those past months of hard work and slender +comfort. Underneath his sunburn, his face had taken on new lines of +resolution. His eyes were as clear as ever; but their boyishness was +all in the past. It was a man who had come striding into the room, +that afternoon, and paused beside her tea-table. And Ethel, looking +up, had greeted him as she might have greeted Baden-Powell in his +place. + +To a great extent, Cape Town was resuming at least a semblance of +its oldtime social life. Heroes were more plentiful than is +altogether normal, however, and there was a dust-colored tint to +most assemblages. During the past months, the Dents' house had come +to be one of the focal points of society, and there were few men of +note who had failed to mount the wide white steps and pass between +the flanking pillars at the top, on their way to the drawing-room +beyond. Once there, they usually came again, immediately, if they +lingered in Cape Town; on their way back from the front, if no +quicker opportunity offered itself. Many a bullet-interrupted +conversation was resumed there; many a boy, just out from home, +confided his mingled homesickness and aspirations to dainty, white- +haired Mrs. Dent in her easy-chair; many a seasoned officer forgot +his ambitions and his disappointments and even his still sensitive +wounds in the gay talk of the golden-haired girl by the tray. As a +rule, Ethel talked shop with no man. She merely looked sympathetic, +and left him to do the talking, which he did unhesitatingly and +without reservation. From the first hour of their meeting, Weldon +had been the one exception. Even in the hospital at Johannesburg, +she had gone over with him in detail his experiences in camp and +field, and it had been Weldon by no means who had done all the +talking. + +To-day, as she had welcomed the tall Canadian in his irreproachable +frock-coat, she had known a sudden pang of regret. Undeniably, his +tailor was an artist. Nevertheless, she liked him better as she had +seen him last, in his stained khaki and his well-worn shoes, bending +over her hand in farewell, then taking The Nig's bridle from the +waiting Kruger Bobs, to leap into the tarnished saddle, lift his hat +and ride away out of sight. No one but Ethel herself had known that +it was not distance alone which had rendered him invisible to her. +And the next week in the hospital had dragged perceptibly. At the +end of that time, she had been quite ready to say good by to +Johannesburg and all that it contained. But, meanwhile, her smile +gave no clue to her memories, as she offered her hand to Weldon. + +"I knew you were here," she said cordially; "and I have any number +of things to talk over with you. There is no talking for me now, +though, with all these people on my hands. Can't you stay on and +dine with us? That will give us an hour to gossip comfortably, and +Captain Frazer is to be the only other guest. I asked him, on the +chance of your appearing. Oh, good afternoon, Colonel Douglas!" + +And Weldon found himself swept on out of her radius. + +He took refuge beside Mrs. Dent and, from that safe slack-water, he +made a thorough survey of the room. It was the first time he had +been present at one of the Dents' reception days, and he +acknowledged himself surprised at what he saw. Here and there an +acquaintance nodded to him; but, for the most part, he was a +stranger to the guests, save for the dozen whom he knew well by +sight and better still by reputation. Moreover, while he watched +her, he began to wonder whether he were not something of a stranger +to Ethel herself. This stately girl was not the comrade with whom he +had tramped the deck of the Dunottar Castle, nor yet the friend of +his early days in Cape Town, nor yet again the blithe companion of +his last tedious hours of convalescence. This girl was altogether +admirable; but a bit awe-inspiring withal. He watched the non- +chalant ease with which she provided a white-haired veteran of many +wars and many orders with a cup of steaming tea, and then sat and +chatted with him while he drank it. He felt himself a bashful boy, +as he watched her, and, like any other bashful boy, he fell to +talking to Mrs. Dent about his mother. + +Then the last visitor made a reluctant exit, and Ethel crossed the +room to his side. With the passing of the little throng of guests +her assured manners had passed, and she met him with the same +informal manner which had marked those last days at Johannesburg. + +"Now," she said, as she dropped down beside her mother's chair; "you +must tell me all about everything, Mr. Weldon. And, first of all, +are you quite strong again?" + +Question had followed question, eager, girlish and sincere, until +Weldon's answers had covered all the interval since they last had +met. At length, the delicate little mother had gone away to rest +before time for dinner. Weldon's strong arm had half-supported, +half-carried her up the staircase. Then, returning to the drawing- +room, he had joined Ethel beside the deserted tea-table. + +"After six months of the billy and the fryingpan, it is wonderfully +good to handle china again," he said, as he halted on the hearth rug +and stood smiling down at her. + +She smiled back at him in full approval. Weldon looked very much the +lord of creation, as he stood there with his back to the fire and +one elbow resting on the mantel beside him. The position suited him, +and, speaking in quite another sense, it suited her also. + +"Then a taste of civilization is pleasant now and then, even to a +grizzled warrior like yourself?" she questioned lightly. + +"Yes, for the time being. One never knows, though, how long that +time being will last." + +"What shall you do, when the war ends?" + +"Go home, take up a share in the pater's business, and grow stout +and lazy," he answered her unsmilingly. + +"An alluring prospect." + +"Yes; but there will be other things: an occasional dinner, and even +a tea now and then." + +Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at him through her long +yellow lashes. + +"And shall you never remember to miss Africa?" she asked indolently. + +His eyes rested upon her gravely. + +"Yes, often. Moreover forgive my bluntness, but it is one of the +privileges of a soldier--moreover, Miss Dent, I shall miss you." + +Her color came; but she made no effort to ignore his words. + +"Thank you," she said, with equal gravity. "I am glad to have you +say so. But I hope it may be long before that day comes." "I can't +tell. I had expected to sail for home, in a week or two. Now I am +not so sure." + +"Whether you wish to?" + +"Whether I ought. When I left the Transvaal, the work seemed nearly +done. Down here, the stories are less promising." He paused; then he +added thoughtfully, "But it leaves me a good deal puzzled in my +mind." + +Coffee was served in the drawing-room, that night. Ethel roused +herself from a reverie as Weldon and Captain Frazer joined her. To +their half-mocking questions, she admitted the fact of her +thoughtfulness. To neither one did she see fit to acknowledge its +cause. The mood passed swiftly, however, and it left her more +brilliantly gay than either man had ever seen her until then. Each +frankly confessed himself dazzled; each one of them, more grave by +nature than she often showed herself, was secretly uneasy lest her +sudden overflow of spirits was in some fashion directed towards his +companion; yet so skilfully did she lead the conversation that, at +the evening's end, neither Weldon nor the Captain could produce any +valid claim to being considered the favored guest. + +"It has been good to have you here," she said gayly, as she gave +them each a hand at parting. "Even if I was not present at your +meeting, I have always felt that I had a finger-tip, at least, in +your friendship." Then, as she dropped their hands, she faced the +Captain with sudden seriousness. "Captain Frazer," she said slowly; +"Mr. Weldon's time is over, and he has left the service. He thinks +the fighting is all done. I am only a woman; I can't explain things +very clearly, and so," she hesitated a little; "and so I think I +shall leave his soul in your hands. There are plenty of people still +in South Africa; there are never too many men." And, with a grave +little nod, half intent, half girlish, she turned away from the +door, leaving the heavy drapery to sway to and fro behind her. + + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + + +Three days later, Weldon ran lightly up the stone steps and rang at +the Dents' door. + +"Is Miss Dent in?" he asked the maid. "I know it isn't her day; but +tell her I am leaving town almost immediately, and I wish to say +good by." + +Notwithstanding his message, Ethel was long about appearing, and her +face and manner, when she halted on the threshold, were a bit +unapproachable. Then, as her eyes lighted on the brown uniform and +the wide slouch hat, her whole expression changed, and she came +forward with an eagerness which she was at no pains to conceal. + +"Mr. Weldon." + +He bowed in mock humility. + +"Trooper Weldon, if you please." + +"I am delighted. Is it your old troop?" + +He shook his head. + +"No. I know the Transvaal and all its resources by heart. I have +chosen the Orange Free State. It is a new country; and, besides, all +the best of the fighting is going to be there, on the heels of De +Wet." + +"Are you a prophet?" she asked, while she dropped into a chair and +motioned to him to be seated. + +"No; but I suspect that Captain Frazer is," he answered, as he +obeyed her. + +She raised her brows questioningly. + +"Does he go, too?" + +"Not now. His staff work holds him here among the fleshpots," he +replied." Later, he may be able to come up to us." + +"Us?" + +"The South African Light Horse." + +"Why did you choose them?" + +"Because they are to operate in the Orange River country, and +because they would have me." + +"Is that a matter to consider?" + +Weldon laughed while, placing his hat on the floor, he settled +himself more comfortably in his chair. His face was unusually +animated, that day, and his trim new uniform and his carefully-wound +putties added inches to his height and showed his lithe, lean figure +at its very best. + +"I considered it," he answered then. "It is a trick of mine, as soon +as I decide I want a thing, to be in living terror of losing it. +However, the ordeal was short and not too severe. Captain Frazer +introduced me to a little lieutenant who looked me over, asked me if +I could ride, if I could shoot a rifle and if I had had any +experience. I fancy the matter was settled beforehand. Then I went +out and treated The Nig and Piggie to some new shoes, and myself to +a new uniform, and the deed was done." + +"Are you glad, or sorry?" she asked slowly. + +"That there was no more red tape?" + +"That you decided as you did?" + +He stared at her thoughtfully for a minute. Then he answered,-- + +"But I imagine it rather decided itself. I spoke of it to you once +before, I remember, when we were up in hospital, how there never +seemed to be much choice open to me. I fancy I am deciding things; I +mull over them till I am disgusted with the whole matter. Then, +after I have made up my mind what I am going to do, I suddenly +realize that there was never any question about it from the start. I +have simply said 'yes' to an irresistible force." + +"Perhaps," she assented slowly. "I am not so sure." Then she turned +to the tangible fact. "But when do you go?" + +"To-morrow morning." + +"I am sorry it must be so soon," she said quietly. "Still, I am glad +you are going. You never would have been satisfied to sail for home +now." + +"No," he answered. "I should not." + +Then the talk halted again. + +"Where is Mr. Carew?" she asked abruptly at length, less from +interest in Carew than from a desire to escape so insistent a pause. + +"At the Mount Nelson." "Here in Cape Town?" + +"Yes. He came down with me. We volunteered together, you know, and +his time was ended, too." + +"Does he go home?" + +"No; not Harry Carew. We had decided to keep together in our plans; +in fact, it was one of the conditions of our coming out. But, from +the start, he has hated the idea of going back home as long as there +was an armed Boer left in the field." + +"And he goes with you?" + +"Yes, to Springfontein. We have our headquarters there for the +present. For Carew's sake, I hope it will be more riding and +scouting than actual fighting. The man is made of some material that +draws all the bullets in sight." + +Ethel smiled. + +"Don't let him stop near you, then," she advised. + +"Why not? He is as good as a shield. It is hard on him, though. He +was hit four or five times before Vlaakfontein, and has had one +scratch since." + +"What is the trouble? Is he foolhardy?" + +"Foolhardy in war, Miss Dent?" + +"Yes, just that. There is no sense in taking needless risks." + +"But it is mighty hard to draw the line between avoiding needless +risks and funking necessary ones," he answered. "But Carew isn't +reckless. He is plucky, but very level-headed, and he means to take +care of himself, when he can. One can't always, you know. And then +he is wonderfully unlucky." + +"You believe in luck, then?" + +"Yes, or Fate. What else makes a man move out of the way, just in +time for the bullet to graze his cheek? He doesn't see the bullet +coming; neither does the man who stops it. Both of them are busy +about something else. For the man who escapes it, it is Providence; +for the man who gets killed, it is Fate." + +She tried to rouse him from his sudden gravity. + +"And for both, it is mere chance." + +"If you call it that. Miss Dent--" He hesitated. + +"Yes," she assented gravely. + +"It was only a chance, but a strange one," he went on, with his eyes +fixed on the topmost ridge of his brown puttie. "We were climbing +the face of a kopje, one day. It was very steep, and we crawled up a +narrow trail in single file. Two days before, our guns had been +shelling the whole kopje, and they must have cracked it up badly. +All at once, the man above me loosened a great lump of rock. I was +exactly underneath it. It gave a little bound outward, went +completely over me and struck full on the head of the next man in +line." + +The girl sat, bending forward in her chair, her strong, quiet hands +clasped loosely in her lap. + +"And he?" she asked quite low. + +"He dropped to the foot of the kopje, dead. In his fall, he dragged +down the next man after him, and his leg was crushed." + +"And you were saved!" she said a bit breathlessly. + +"Doesn't it make you feel a vague responsibility, as if you must +live up to something that you couldn't quite understand?" + +Without looking up, he bowed in assent. + +"Yes," he said then. "Don't think me foolishly superstitious, Miss +Dent, or too egotistic. I try not to pay much attention to it. Once +in a while, though, not too often, it all comes back over me, and I +feel then as if my life might have been kept for something that is +still ahead of me." + +"And doesn't it leave you feeling anxious about making all your +decisions?" she asked slowly, as she leaned back again in her chair. + +"At first. Then I remember how that, and some other things have been +settled for me." + +"What then?" + +"Then I shut my teeth and face forward. All one can do, is to forget +the future and take the present as it comes, making the best of each +minute and leaving the hour to look out for itself," he answered +simply. "Sometimes one makes better progress by drifting than he +does by punting against the current." + +She bit her lip. + +"Sometimes I think, though--" Suddenly she roused herself and gave a +nervous little laugh. "Captain Frazer is coming up the steps," she +added. + +"You think?" Weldon reminded her, as she rose. + +But she shook her head and laughed again, this time more in her +natural manner. + +"I think that I wish you would bring Mr. Carew to call on me, next +time you come," she said evasively. + +"Thank you. He will be glad to come. The only question is when the +next time will arrive." + +"You said Captain Frazer was a prophet," she said, as she moved +towards the door. "Ask him." + +Tall, alert, eager, the Captain entered the room in time to catch +her words. + +"A prophet of what and to whom, Miss Dent?" he asked, as he bowed +over her outstretched hand. + +"To Mr. Weldon, in regard to the future fighting," she answered +gayly. + +"You here, Weldon?" + +"Yes, to say good by." + +Captain Frazer nodded. + +"I saw Mitchell, this morning. He spoke well of you; of Carew, too, +for the matter of that. He told me your troop would be off in the +morning, and asked me to diagnose ,your best points." + +"Could you find any?" Weldon asked imperturbably. "A few. I told him +you could sit tight and shoot straight," the Captain answered, +laughing. Then he added gravely, "And I also told him you could ride +the fiend incarnate, and that, as far as I knew, you didn't lose +your head when you were under fire." + +For the instant, Weldon forgot his hostess, as he looked up to meet +the Captain's blue eyes squarely. + +"Thank you. But it is more than I deserve." + +"Then you must try to live up to it," Ethel advised him languidly. +"It merely increases your responsibilities, for now you have two +reputations to support, your own for pluck and the Captain's for +being a judge of his fellowmen. It is an awful weight that you are +carrying on your shoulders, Mr. Weldon." + +"If it grows too heavy, I will slide some of it off on your own," he +returned, as he picked up his hat and rose to his feet. "Your +responsibility is back of mine, Miss Dent. It was you who advised me +to stay in South Africa." + +"Not at all. I presented the case and kept my advice to myself," she +rebelled promptly. + +"Certain presentments are stronger than much advising." + +"Perhaps. But in the end, you remember, I commended your soul to +Captain Frazer's keeping." + +He bowed with the odd, old-fashioned deference which it pleased him +to assume at times. "Captain Frazer may have saved it; but it may +have been you who made it worth his efforts at salvation." + +She laughed again. Nevertheless, her eyes showed her pleasure. + +"Then we, Captain Frazer and I, must divide the responsibility for +your future," she replied. "In any case, may it be all good!" + +The drapery fell backward over his departing figure, and, for an +instant, Ethel stood staring at the swaying folds. Then, turning, +she walked back to the fire. + +"All good," she repeated. "I know you echo the wish, Captain Frazer. +But--isn't it hard to say good by?" + +"In these days most of all," he assented slowly. "And one never can +tell when his own turn may come." + +"Nor what its end may be," she added. Then impetuously she rose +again and moved up and down the room. "Look at that sunshine +outside, Captain Frazer," she said restlessly. "It ought to forbid +any such gloomy moods. I believe all this war and so many partings +are spoiling my nerve. I really feel quite blue, to-day; and Mr. +Weldon made it worse." + +"By saying good by?" + +Glancing up, she was astonished at the wishful, hungry look in the +blue eyes before her. "Yes, a little," she said lightly; "for I hate +the very word. But, if it must be spoken, it should always be short +and staccato. Instead, he sat here, and we talked about Fate and +wounds and all sorts of direful things." She shook herself and +shivered slightly. Then she sat down in the chair which Weldon had +just left vacant. "It is bad manners to have nerves, Captain Frazer. +Forgive me first, and then tell me something altogether flippant, to +make me forget things." + +But her mood had caught the Captain in its grasp. + +"Are you sure you want to forget?" he asked her gravely. + +"Yes," she made vehement answer. "Always!" + +But not even her decided answer brought back the eager light into +his dark blue eyes. + +Nevertheless, an hour later found him still sitting there. Ethel's +depression had vanished, to be followed by a mood of wayward +merriment for which the honest, straightforward soldier was totally +at a loss to account. Sincere himself, he looked for sincerity in +others. If Ethel's gravity had been unfeigned, how could it so soon +give place to her present buoyancy? Not the strictest code of +hospitality could demand that a hostess should straightway toss +aside the thought of the parting guest who had gone away to battle +and, perhaps, to sudden death. And, if the girl had been insincere +in her parting from Weldon, why should she be sincere in her present +absorption in his own interests? And, if her regrets for Weldon were +as great as they had seemed to be, then what was the use of his +remaining by her side any longer? The horns of the dilemma extended +themselves to infinity and branched again and again as they +extended. Meanwhile, his eyes were full of trouble, and his answers +to her questions were vague and faltering. Until her sudden trip to +Johannesburg, Captain Frazer had taken the girl as a matter of +course. Since then, he had begun to doubt, and the doubts were +thickening. + +But, after all, there was no real reason for doubt. During her one +short season in London, the Captain had met Ethel constantly, he had +been quite obviously the favorite of the old aunt who had presided +over the girl's introduction to society, and his later meetings with +Ethel at sundry week-end gatherings had convinced him that he had no +serious rival. Then had come the war; and Ethel's absence from town +had made a farewell impossible. Captain Frazer had sailed away, +leaving the past behind him; but the future was still his, to be +lost or won, according to the use he made of his manhood's chances. + +And then, on the dazzling summer morning which had ushered in the +new century, he had caught a glimpse of Ethel riding towards home. +Three days later, as he had gone away down the broad white steps, he +had felt convinced that the future already lay in his grasp. It had +been the selfsame Ethel, unchanged and changeless to his loyal mind, +who had met him with smiling, eager cordiality. The year of +separation was cast aside; their friendship began again at the +precise spot where it had been broken off. + +Since then, he had seen her often, occasionally alone, sometimes +with her mother, sometimes the central figure of a little crowd who +were obviously striving to win her favor. Her father's fortune was +in part the cause of this; but the greater, surer cause lay within +the girl's own personality. Ethel Dent was no negative character. +However, Captain Frazer had never found her too absorbed in her +other companions to be able to give him a share of her attention +which differed from all other shares that she bestowed, in being a +bit more personal in its cordiality. His black-fringed blue eyes +were keen and far-sighted. They assured him that, whatever her +regard for him, at least it was true that, in all her Cape Town +life, there was no man for whom Ethel Dent had a sincerer liking. +And then, all at once, a doubt had assailed his mind, and the doubt +had centered itself in this long, lean Canadian with the grave, +steady face and the boyish manner. Worst of all, the doubt had +scarcely arisen before he himself had become aware of his own +growing liking for the young Canadian. Captain Leo Frazer was +strictly just. He admitted to himself that Weldon was in every way +worthy to be chosen by Ethel Dent. However, he was determined as +well as just, and he had no mind at all to allow Ethel Dent to +choose any man but one, and that one was himself, Leo Frazer. + +And now he was sitting moodily by her fireside, listening to her +light, easy flow of talk and asking himself certain questions, which +he was powerless to answer. + +As he rose at last, some sudden impulse made him speak from the very +midst of his train of thought. + +"Did you know he had refused a commission?" he asked, regardless of +antecedents. + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. + +"No. Did he?" + +"Yes. Mitchell told me, this morning." + +"I wonder why." + +"He said he had pledged himself to stay with the rank and file, that +it was easier to take orders than to give them." + +"Strange!" she said thoughtfully. + +"Strange that he should feel so?" + +She shook her head. + +"No. He told me about that, coming out. I am not surprised. But it +is strange that he shouldn't have spoken of the matter now." + +"It was like him. He doesn't tell all his best deeds," Captain +Frazer said, with direct frankness "Still, I thought it was fairer +that you should know." + +Her color came, as she met his eyes; but she offered no question in +regard to the meaning of his final phrase. + + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + + +"Good reason they call them kopjes," Carew grumbled scornfully, as +he swept his arm about the encircling landscape. "Every flat-top +hill is an exact copy of every other flat-top hill, and they all are +more or less hideous to behold. My one source of rejoicement lies in +the fact that the pattern was worn out down here, instead of being +sent up to make our mountains by. I hate a bobtail horse; but it's +nothing so bad as these everlasting bobtail hills. And, by Jove, +there comes another dust devil!" + +Far away across the veldt, a tiny spurt of dust twirled up into the +air and came spinning towards them like a huge, translucent top. +Gaining momentum as it spun along and picking up more dust as it +advanced, it came whirling onward, rising high and higher until it +swept down on them, a huge, khaki-colored, balloon-like mass. It +caught them in its whirl, ground its stinging, sifting particles +into their clothing, their skin and even into their shut eyes. Then +it passed them by, and went spinning away in its course. Carew swore +softly, as he wiped the dust from his lashes. + +"Beastly things! There really ought to be a society formed for the +suppression of dust devils in their infancy. What do you suppose +becomes of the things, Weldon? There's no stopping them, once they +get under way; and, at their rate of growth, they could bury a +township in their old age." + +"Granted they could find one to bury," Weldon returned. "Meanwhile, +observe your bath tub." + +Carew glanced down at the dust-filled buckets at his feet. + +"Oh, hang!" he said concisely. "And I was about to prink." + +"One would think you needed it now more than ever," Weldon answered, +as he shook himself free from the thickest of the dust. "What's the +use of trying to keep clean, Carew?" + +"Precious little. I used to talk about I 'the un-tubbed.' Now I +mean, merely for the sake of example, to shave twice in the month, +and swab myself off between whiles. It's not for comfort, I assure +you. It's my belief that an occasional bath is worse than none. It +merely stirs up memories of the buried past, and aspirations that +can't be fulfilled. However--" And Carew, the quondam exquisite, +pulled off his socks and shirt, punched them down into one of the +buckets and then did his British best to wash himself in the other. + +His lamentations rose again, however, when he put on his time- +stained uniform once more. + +"I now understand why Brother Boer sleeps in his clothes," he +observed grimly. "Cleanliness, may be next to godliness; but it is +mighty near the edge of the diabolical to put yourself back into +clothes that are only fit for the dust bin. When I am field marshal +of a long campaign, my first act will be to establish swimming tanks +and laundries as a branch of the Army Service Corps. Meanwhile, see +here!" His open hand came down on his dust-colored coat. Ten minutes +later, the print of every finger was still distinctly visible. + +Weldon watched him sympathetically. Thanks to the efforts of Kruger +Bobs, his own clothing was slightly less filled with dust, and his +abandoned socks came back to him in a state of comparative +cleanliness. Satisfied with the fact, he made no effort to inquire +into the method of its achievement. + +Carew, meanwhile, his coat off, his sleeves rolled to his elbows, +was grappling with his efforts to produce laundry effect from a +wooden bucket and a few quarts of dingy water. Beyond splashing his +putties and giving himself a pain in the hinges of his back, he +accomplished little. The garments were very wet; but their griminess +was increased, rather than diminished. Carew's face fell, as he +lifted them one by one. Then he shook his head. + +"They certainly aren't cleaner; but they may be a bit fresher for +being irrigated," he observed hopefully. "Look out!" + +Weldon dodged out of range, as a sock, squeezed from the ankle +downward, yielded up its irrigation in a sudden spurt through the +toe. + +"Hold on, Carew; I'm no candidate for baptism," he adjured his +friend. "Let your things soak for a while, and I'll send Kruger Bobs +over to take them in hand, as soon as he gets through polishing off +The Nig." + +Carew straightened his aching back. + +"I'll change work with him," he suggested promptly. "A horse is on +your own level; it's degrading to run a Chinese laundry." + +Weldon glanced from the wooden bucket to the soaked wrists and +splashed putties of his companion. + +"I wish Miss Mellen could see you now, Carew," he remarked unkindly. + +With unexpected suddenness, Carew mounted his dignity. + +"Unfortunately Miss Mellen is at Johannesburg. Moreover, Miss Mellen +has probably seen men in this mess before now," he answered a little +shortly. + +"Doubtless. She may have been in a similar fix, herself. If she +were, I suspect she would put it through and come out on top," +Weldon replied, with an accent of hearty and respectful admiration +which mollified his companion. "There's my call. I must go to +inspect my day nursery." And, leaving Carew beside his amateur wash- +tub, he went striding away to the farther side of the camp where a +hollow between the hills had been converted into a monstrous kraal. +Involuntarily he smiled, as he walked off to his duty. Carew had +been an edifying spectacle, as he had sacrificed himself upon the +altar of cleanliness. He had been neither deft, dignified nor +devout; and, in all truth, Alice Mellen would have found it hard to +recognize her finical patient in the dusty, unshaven man whose hair +bore unmistakable signs of having been pruned with a pair of pocket +scissors. Little of Carew's past month had been spent in the base +camp at Springfontein. With hundreds of other men, he had gone +galloping up and down the Free State on the slippery heels of De +Wet, now being shot at by prowling Boers, now engaged in a lively +skirmish from which he never made his exit totally unscathed, now +riding for weary, dusty miles upon a scent which ultimately proved +to be a false one. And, meanwhile, not a postbag came into camp +without a letter for Carew, bearing the mark of Johannesburg. It was +not altogether resultless that Carew's foot had been obstinately +slow in its healing. + +To Weldon, a fixture in camp, fell the care of receiving Carew's +mail. At last, when one day the bag brought in two letters addressed +in the same dashing, angular handwriting, he forsook his principles +and made open comment. + +"There is a slight monotony about your mail, in these latter days, +Carew," he observed dispassionately. And Carew had answered, with +perfect composure,-- + +"Yes, in view of my chronic trick of being potted at, I find it wise +to keep on good terms with my nurse. It may prove handy in case of +accident, like an insurance policy, you know. Is that all?" And, +cramming the letters into his pocket, he walked away to his tent. + +And Weldon, as he watched him, nodded contentedly to himself. He +liked Carew; he also liked Alice Mellen. Beyond that, he made no +effort to go. Just now, he cared to penetrate the thoughts of but +one woman. The others he was willing to take on trust. Nevertheless, +it would have caused him some surprise, could he have reviewed all +the mental processes of Alice Mellen, during the past ten months. +For Weldon, the days at Springfontein differed not one whit, one +from another, yet each day was full of an excitement which sent his +blood stinging through his veins. Every man in the regiment could +ride a broken horse; but, for many of them their attainments stopped +there, and broken horses were few and far between. With the +increasing need of troopers for the guerrilla raiding into which the +war was degenerating, with the inevitable losses of a long campaign, +mounts of any kind were scarce. Nevertheless, consternation had +descended upon the camp, one day, when three hundred kicking, +squealing American bronchos had been detrained and placed at their +service. The next day, casualties were frequent; on the day after +that, there was made announcement that mounted parade would be +omitted. Weldon read the notice, smiled and went in search of his +captain. He was tired of inaction, and he felt his muscles growing +soft. They hardened speedily, however. + +Day after day, he went striding into the kraal whence, after a +skirmish which was more or less prolonged, he emerged astride a +mount which, with shrieking voice and rampant hoofs, gave notice to +all that such a liberty could not be permitted. Nevertheless, it was +permitted. Sometimes, the final contest took place miles away from +the point of its beginning. Sometimes horse and rider settled the +matter in the course of a few concentric circles of an hundred-yard +radius; sometimes it bucked; sometimes it rolled, and sometimes it +merely sat down upon its haunches, dog-wise, and refused to budge. +Almost invariably, it came out from the contest, unscarred save for +its dignity and its temper. Weldon's lips shut tight; but his eyes +rarely blazed. These wild, frightened creatures taxed his patience +and his resource; but they hardly touched his temper in the least. + +"What's the use of thrashing a beast that's mad with terror?" he +answered one critical amateur who had watched the game from a safe +distance. "The creature is in a funk, as it is; there's no use in +adding to it. All I'm after is to teach 'em that saddles and bridles +don't bite. Treat 'em decently and sit tight, and they'll come right +and learn to trust you in the end." + +And, as mount after mount was delivered over to the waiting +authorities, it came to be a matter of general belief that the +regimental rough-rider knew his business, albeit he accomplished it +more by dint of urging than by many blows. Six weeks of this work +had told upon him, told in the right direction. Under the brown +skin, the muscles stood out like knotted cords; his nerves were +steady; he ate like a wolf and slept the dreamless sleep of a +healthy child. To the outward eye, his face changed but little. Its +outlines were more rugged, the curves of his lips a bit more +resolute; but that was all. + +Now and then, amid the merry group at the camp fire, he sat silent, +while he let his mind range away to the southward. Somewhere there, +in the green-ringed town in the mountain's shelter, was a tall girl +with yellow hair and eyes which matched the zenith when it darkens +after the dropping of the sun. His fancy painted her in every +conceivable situation: walking, riding, resting at noonday in the +shaded western end of the veranda, or pouring tea for relays of +thirsty guests. As a rule, the Captain's figure was in the +background of these pictures, and Weldon was content to have it so. +In all South Africa, these were his two best friends; it was good +that they could be together. And the Captain was an older man, much +older. When one lives in the open air during twenty-four hours of +every day, jealousy has scant place in his mind. The smaller vices +are for the cramped town, not for the limitless, unbroken veldt. + +And now and then a day brought with it a letter, frank, friendly and +full of news. Those days Weldon marked with a white stone; but his +sleep, on those nights, was as quiet and dreamless as ever. Facts +were facts. Theories and hopes were for the future; and no man looks +much to the future in a time of war. + +Besides the letters, there were minor events, too, events which went +to fill up the letters of reply. Now it was a hospital train which +halted at the camp on the way southward, and each red-taped nurse +had reminded him of Alice Mellen, and of those last days in +Johannesburg. Now it was a two-day trek, as escort for a convoy +train whose long lines of bullock-drawn wagons marked the brown +veldt with a wavering stripe of duller brown. Again a wounded picket +came straying back to camp, bleeding and dazed, to report the +inevitable sniping which furnished the running accompaniment to most +other events; or an angry squad came riding in, to tell of the shots +which had followed close upon the raising of the white flag, or of +the score of armed men who had suddenly leaped out from the safe +shelter of a Red-Cross ambulance. And, on one occasion, he had been +in the thick of a similar fray. Hand to hand, he had fought on the +doorsteps of a farmhouse to which he and his five comrades had been +bidden by a sprightly Boer in gown and sunbonnet. At the door, the +bonnet had been cast from the cropped head, and the gown had been +pushed back to give access to the bandolier beneath, while a dozen +shots from an upper window had driven them from the dooryard into +the comparative shelter of the lower rooms. The skirmish had ended +with a charge up the stairway. Weldon, that same night, had written +to Ethel a wholly humorous account of the whole affair, and it was +not until long afterwards that she had learned from Carew, who had +been of the party, which was the trooper who had mounted guard over +the room where the aged grandmother had tucked herself away under +her bed. The old Dutch vrouw had bidden him to share her shelter; +but he had taken note of her dimensions, and had declined her +hospitality. Later on, when the fight was over and she had painfully +wriggled her way out from her trap, he had also declined certain of +her manifestations of gratitude. Even chivalry to the aged possesses +its humorous side. + +Then, one November night, Weldon came into his tent with alert step +and glowing eyes. He found Carew going through his camp outfit in +detail, and, squatting on the floor in the corner, Kruger Bobs was +cleaning accoutrements as if his life depended on it. + +"You look as if events were about to happen," he observed, from the +dispassionate distance of the doorway. + +"They are." + +"Ask them to include me, then." + +"What do you need of events, you regimental broncho-buster?" + +"One gets sick of even the best horseflesh in time," he answered +nonchalantly. + +"Sorry, for you are doomed to more of it." + +"Another herd of bronchos?" Weldon's voice showed that the idea +displeased him. + +"No; but a two-hundred-mile trek across country." + +"Good. I am tired of being cooped up, and a spin of that kind will +be a boon." + +Carew settled back on his heels and looked up at him. + +"Spin is it! Your only spin will be on your own axis. We are to act +as escort for a convoy train of fifty wagons and ten times fifty +mules. We shall make six miles a day, and our tongues will be wholly +corrupted by the language of the mule-drivers. And, in the end, we +shall get to--" + +"A glorious fight, I trust," Weldon supplemented. + +Gloomily Carew shook his head. "No; merely to Winburg. We are going +to provision Weppener and Ladybrand, and then make for the railroad +again. We'll strike it at Winburg most likely. It is an unholy sort +of hole, and I hear that the hotel serves watered ink and currant +jelly under the name of claret. We shall sit there and sip it, until +the train arrives, and then we shall entrain and come back again. +And this," he emphasized his words by plumping forward on his knees +once more; "and this is war!" + +"Yes; but it lets us out on a longer leash than I have had for some +time," Weldon said serenely. "Anyway, it is well for you that it is +not likely to be a bloody campaign, for you'll be headed straight +away from Johannesburg, and I misdoubt me if Winburg holds a +hospital." + +"Judging from my past records, it will have to found one, then," +Carew answered composedly. "If I have to go through two hundred +miles of the enemy's country, they might as well open up, in +readiness for my coming. But what is the letter, old man?" + +"News. Yours had knocked it out of my mind, though. Mine comes off +later. Captain Frazer has been transferred to the South African +Light Horse, and will come up here as adjutant, on the first." + +Carew's face brightened. + +"That's good hearing. He will be higher still, before De Wet is +taken." "I hope so. Anyway, he is coming to us. Think of having him +about again!" + +"Much good will it do us! An adjutant doesn't mess with the +trooper." + +"Frazer will stick to his friends." + +"Mayhap. Still, better men than he have gone dizzy, as they went up +the ladder, and dizziness makes people look at what's above them, +rather than at what is below," Carew answered oracularly. "Frazer's +influence will be sound, and we shall feel it from one end of things +to the other. Aside From that, we aren't likely to be much affected +by his coming. Did Miss Dent tell any other news?" + +"As it happens, Miss Dent didn't tell me this." + +"Who, then?" + +"Captain Frazer, himself," Weldon answered, with a quiet relish of +his own victory. "He sends messages and all that to you." Then he +added, "And who else do you think is coming?" + +"With him?" + +"Yes." + +Carew shook his head. + +"I've no idea, unless Lord Kitchener is about to pay us a visit. +There were rumors of it, a week or so ago." + +"Guess again. It's a mightier than Lord Kitchener, this time." + +"Can't be." + +Weldon laughed. "It is, for it is a man trained to two weapons, who +has beaten his kettles into a helmet and his pepper-pot into a +cartridge-box." + +"Paddy?" + +"Yes, Paddy. The Captain writes that he is thirsting for gore and +glory, and that he has learned to ride anything from a clotheshorse +to a nightmare." + +Carew laughed. + +"Paddy all over. He never could take things as they came." + +"Except Parrott's horse," Weldon suggested. + +"How did he get out of that scrape?" + +"Went out. There was talk of official vengeance; but Paddy vanished, +that same night. A week later, he turned up at the Captain's room in +Cape Town, with a bundle of clothes and a story that was as leaky as +a sieve. The Captain sent him out to Maitland to be licked into +shape, and this is the result." + +"No," Carew objected in a sudden burst of prophecy. "Mind my words, +Paddy has not resulted yet. That will come, later on in the game." + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + + +Winburg may have all the elements of greatness; but greatness itself +is lacking. Nevertheless, after watching a convoy train tool along +over the green-flecked yellow veldt at the rate of six miles a day, +after seeing nothing but an occasional isolated farmhouse, the +little town appeared like a centre of civilization and excitement to +the bored troopers, as they rode up the main street and pitched camp +on the western edge of the town. There they sat and idly wondered +behind which particular hill was the largest commando. No type of +boredom is more acute than that which links itself with periods of +inaction in the army. Fifteen minutes would have sufficed to exhaust +the resources of Winburg; the troopers remained there for fifteen +days. Only Kruger Bobs was fully in his element. His daily grooming +of the broncho and his master once over, his time was his own, and +he employed it to the best of his ability. Fate had endowed Kruger +Bobs with a smile which won instant liking and gained instant +fulfilment of his wishes. Just as, months before, he had sat on the +river bank at Piquetberg Road, and grinned persuasively at the jam +tins, so now he ranged up and down among the farms scattered about +Winburg, and grinned himself into possession of manifold eggs and +plump fowls and even of soft wheat bread, the final luxury of the +biscuit-sated trooper who owned his fealty. + +"'Is thy servant a dog?'" Carew had quoted gravely at sight of his +first army biscuit. + +And Weldon had made answer,-- + +"Not if he knows it. I have always had full sympathy with my hound +who leaves his dog-bread in favor of a bit of oak planking gnawed +out from his kennel floor." + +But Carew was less dainty. Nevertheless, he attacked the biscuit +with two flat stones, and mixed the debris with his coffee. + +Now, however, thanks to the efforts of Kruger Bobs, they were living +thriftily and upon the fat of the land. + +"How do you get it all, Kruger Bobs? "Weldon had demanded, one day. +"To my sure knowledge, you've no money, and people hereabouts don't +love the British. What is your secret?" + +Kruger Bobs ducked his bristly head into his ragged hat, and gave an +explosive chuckle. Then he raised his head and scratched it +demurely. + +"Kruger Bobs just gits it, Boss," he explained comprehensively. + +He came in, the next night, his pockets stuffed, his mouth wide ajar +and the very whites of his eyes full of mystery. Carew and Weldon, +sitting together, glanced up as he appeared. Instantly, as he caught +sight of Carew, Kruger Bobs veiled his emotion and sought to become +properly nonchalant. Nevertheless, it was plain that he had tidings +to impart; and at length, over the top of Carew's head, he fell to +making graphic, yet totally unintelligible, signs to his master. + +"What in thunder do you want, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon demanded. + +Kruger Bobs heaved an ostentatious sigh, cast at Weldon one flashing +grin, and then asked dolorously,-- + +"Me speak Boss out dere?" + +"What under heaven is the matter with you, Kruger Bobs?" Weldon +asked, as he departed on the heels of his serving man. + +Kruger Bobs slapped his thigh noiselessly, vanished behind his +smile, then reappeared to put his lips to Weldon's ear and whisper +in raucous triumph--"Syb down dere Winburg." + +"What? Who is Syb?" Weldon queried blankly. + +Kruger Bobs straightened, in dignified resentment at his master's +ignorance. + +"Syb be my vrouw soon." + +"Oh, I see. No wonder you look elated, you rascal. So you have been +courting?" + +The grin reappeared. "Ya, Boss. More, too." + +"What now?" "Kruger Bobs got despatch from Syb for Boss." + +Weldon's face expressed his amusement. + +"Much obliged to the lady. Give her mine." "Syb say--" Again the +thick black lips approached Weldon's ear, and the bristly head +nodded energetically in time to the moving lips. + +"Who?" Weldon said incredulously. "Miss Mellen?" + +"Ya, Boss." + +"How does Syb--Is that what you call her?--how does she know? Oh, I +remember now. It is the girl who served at Miss Mellen's home," +Weldon said, as light began to dawn. + +"Ya, Boss; dat Syb." + +"And she is here with Miss Mellen?" + +Kruger Bobs nodded. + +"What are they doing?" + +"Dey is nurses sick mens." "How long have they been here?" + +"One, tree, five day." + +"Five days," Weldon translated to himself. "It was an odd chance, +your running on her so soon. Did she know we were here?" + +"She tink ya," Kruger Bobs replied. "Syb no tell." "But why not?" + +The matter-of-course question appeared to fill Kruger Bobs with +amazement. + +"Boss make night march," he answered. "She may not care to have me. +Still, we'll ride out there with you in the morning." + +"Boss?" + +"Mr. Carew and myself." + +Kruger Bobs looked hurt. In hot excitement, the black fingers closed +on a fold of the brown sleeve. + +"Kruger Bobs go, too?" + +"What makes you want to go?" + +"Syb dere, Boss." + +"I don't see what difference that makes," Weldon said reflectively. + +Once more Kruger Bobs turned coy. + +"Boss go see his vrouw; me go see Syb," he explained briefly. + +Weldon's laugh astonished him; still more Weldon's answer. + +"Oh, Kruger Bobs, you love-struck calf! Because you're in love with +Syb, do you think it follows that I am in love with Miss Mellen?" + +Kruger Bobs plotted geometrical problems with his left toe. + +"Syb say," he replied at length. Then he raised his eyes from his +problem. "Boss vrouw good," he ventured persuasively. + +Weldon laughed again. + +"So we all think. Mr. Carew knows her much better than I do, though, +and Miss Mellen would be hurt, if he didn't go out to see her." + +But Kruger Bobs stood his ground. "Boss Weldon go see his vrouw; +Kruger Bobs go see his vrouw; Boss Carew no vrouw." + +However, in spite of the advice of Kruger Bobs, Carew was at +Weldon's side, as they rode through Winburg, the next morning. + +Already the country was taking on the look of summer, and the dusty +stretches of veldt were tinged here and there with thin patches of +growing green. Over the hills nearest the town were scattered the +lines of ruined trenches, still littered here and there with rusty +tools dropped there by the Boers when, long months before, they had +caught sight of the advancing armies of French and Hutton. As they +drew nearer, Weldon could make out the familiar details of a field +hospital: the low white tents in their circle of whitewashed stones, +the Red-Cross nurses hurrying to and fro and the blue-coated +convalescents strolling leisurely about the enclosure. Carew, +meanwhile, had pushed forward. Above the P. M. O.'s tent fluttered +the Red Cross, and he had caught sight of a white apron and a +scarlet cape in the open door. + +"Miss Mellen! Alice!" + +In the still air of a summer noon, Carew's voice carried distinctly +back to Weldon. He glanced towards the tent. Then, beckoning to +Kruger Bobs, he turned and rode away to inspect the distant +landscape. + +An hour later, Kruger Bobs was squatting on the ground, a heaped +plate on his knees and a smile of rapture surrounding his smacking +lips. Near him, the three horses munched contentedly, stamping +lightly now and then and whisking their tails to drive off the +buzzing flies. Outside the door of the tent, Alice Mellen sat on a +bench, with Carew at her side and Weldon sprawling lazily on the +ground at her feet. + +"Twenty-seven inside," she told them. "It is mostly enteric and S. +C., men who have been sent here from Bloemfontein. Their hospitals +are overcrowded. We have both sorts here, you know." + +"Nursing Boers?" Carew asked, disapprovingly. + +"Why not? They are men, plucky men, too, some of them. I rather like +the race. Anyway, it makes an interesting mixture. We have had to +put them all together, and they get on capitally, exchanging stories +and gossip and sympathy like men of the same company. One of them, a +Boer,--" she hesitated for the right word; then she adopted the +vernacular of the service--"went out, the other day; and, among his +mourners, the sincerest ones were the two London Tommies in the two +next beds. War isn't all hatred, by any means. Turn nurse for a +month and you'll find it out." + +"Or else turn patient," Carew interpolated quietly. + +Her color came; but she only turned more directly to Weldon. + +"I was glad to come here for a change," she added. "Shall you stay +here long?" + +"It is impossible to tell. The other nurses here are younger at it +than I, and there are some hard cases. If it were not for Syb, I +should be at my wits' end sometimes." + +"Then ought you to stay here?" Carew urged, with a sudden assumption +of proprietorship which sat well upon him. + +She faced him with a smile. + +"Oh, but this is nothing in comparison with Johannesburg. There the +work is agonizing. Between wounds and enteric, the place is crammed, +and we can't get the nurses we absolutely need. My mother thought I +was growing too tired, and she sent Syb up here to take care of me. +Instead, I have pressed her into the service and trained her until +she is one of the best nurses I have ever had under me. The men +adore her, she is so strong and so full of her queer, jolly fun." + +With his head pillowed on his arms, Weldon lay watching her +thoughtfully. Under her piles of inky hair, her face looked thin, +and the shadows lay heavy around her eyes. Nevertheless, the eyes +were shining and the curves of the lips were all upward. Plainly the +day had brought her a tonic; yet the past six months had told upon +the girl pitilessly. + +"But, for God's sake, when is it all to end?" he burst out suddenly. + +"Tired of the service, Mr. Weldon?" she asked gravely, but with no +accent of reproach. + +"Not tired of my own. But the worst of it all comes back on you +women, and that is maddening." + +She smiled down at him, and the light in her eyes deepened and grew +yet more womanly. + +"It is all we can do to help, Mr. Weldon. Let us take what share we +can. The work is hard, hard and discouraging; but--" involuntarily +she glanced at Carew's happy, handsome face; "but now and then it +brings its own reward." + +The short silence was broken only by Kruger Bobs, scraping his spoon +along his fast-emptying plate. Then Alice spoke again. + +"You hear often from Cooee, Mr. Weldon?" + +"Now and then. Not often." + +"Did you know that she may come to us, after Christmas?" + +"No," he said alertly. "To Johannesburg?" + +She nodded. + +"We need her, and my aunt has almost given her consent. The need +grows greater, every day; we can't hold out much longer, unless we +can have more help. Cooee isn't trained at all; but she has endless +tact and she knows how to take orders. Unless January brings us +fewer patients, I think she will come north for a month." "Does she +wish to?" + +Alice laughed. + +"As a matter of mere conscience. Cooee hates lint and disinfectants +and the hush of things; but she begins to see the need before her. +She makes all manner of fun of me, and of the whole hospital scheme +of things; but still I think she will come. My aunt opposes it; but +we are trying to compromise on a month. That won't wear Cooee out, +and the novelty will last for that length of time, and help keep up +her enthusiasm." + +"Did you know Captain Frazer is coming up, in a week or two?" + +For an instant, Alice's eyes clouded. + +"No. When did you hear?" + +"Just as I left camp. The appointment took him quite by surprise, +and he wrote to me at once," Weldon answered with quiet dignity, for +he was not slow to read the question in the girl's mind. + +Her face cleared. + +"I hadn't heard. Cooee's last letter is three weeks old, so it +couldn't bring the news." Then she glanced over her shoulder, as one +of the doctors halted on the threshold. "Am I needed?" + +"Young Walpole is just going," he said gravely. "He has asked for +you." + +Both men rose to their feet. It was Carew, however, who lingered. + +"We are leaving Winburg, to-morrow, so this is good by," he said +regretfully. "Take care of yourself, Alice, and bless you!" And, +underneath its happiness, his boyish face was unusually grave, as he +mounted and rode away at Weldon's side. + + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + + +Christmas morning found the camp at Lindley wakening to a general +atmosphere of peace and good will to man. Scarcely fifty miles away +at Tweefontein, De Wet's midnight charge had left behind it sixty +men sleeping their last grim sleep in defiance of the peace ordained +for the Christmas dawn. And, midway between the camp of the living +and the line of the dead, there lay the little town of Bethlehem. + +After the frosty night, the day came, hot and clear, with the sun +beating down from a cloudless sky and the mirage dancing upon the +distant horizon. To the men from the north, it was a bit of a shock +to exchange Christmas greetings, while the thermometer went sliding +up to the mark of one hundred degrees. Nevertheless, they hailed one +another lustily, and threw themselves into the spirit of the holiday +feast with the zest of schoolboys. + +For full three months now, the greater number of the troopers had +been dodging up and down over the surface of the Orange River Colony +on the heels of the tireless De Wet. After accomplishing forty +futile miles a day, after subsisting chiefly upon army biscuits and +bully beef, they had earned their right to rest. This, at least, was +the opinion of their adjutant. + +All the day before, there had been flying rumors of a forced march +on the following morning; but no orders had been given, and just at +nightfall had come the definite announcement that no move would be +made until after Christmas. Those who had seen their adjutant going +away from the colonel's tent, half an hour before, were able to draw +their own conclusions. The rest accepted the fact as it stood, and +made no effort to account for the change in their plans. It was +enough for them that two thousand sheep were to be roasted, to the +end that every man might eat his fill; and they took an eager hand, +next morning, in scooping out the ant-hill and kindling the fires +inside. Then, seated on the ground, they spun their yarns while they +waited until the white-hot earth on top of the hill gave notice that +the oven was ready for the roast. + +Carew, meanwhile, was unpacking the neat little parcel which had +come to him with Christmas greeting from the Daughters of the +Empire. Lined up for inspection before breakfast, every trooper had +received an exactly similar parcel; every one had given expression +to his thankful heart; then every one had gone away to inspect the +offering. + +"This is kind of the ladies, very kind," Carew was observing, with a +perfectly grave face, as he drew out a handkerchief of spotty red +cotton and a khaki-colored nightcap. "Look, Weldon! These fit my +complexion to a charm, and will be wonderfully warm and comfortable. +What is in your grab bag?" + +"Ditto, apparently," Weldon answered. "I think I shall keep these to +sport about at home in." + +Carew shook his head. + +"Oh, no. The kind ladies wish us to use them now, and you should +accept the gift according to the spirit in which it is given." +Taking off his wide felt hat, he replaced it with the wool nightcap, +covered the nightcap with the handkerchief and then put on the hat +over all the rest. "And what have we here?" he continued. "A pipe? +Oh, the naughty ladies! Cigarettes?" He smelled at them gingerly, +then sneezed into a corner of the scarlet kerchief. "Matches, +shoelaces, and, by George, a cake of soap! Now, if we only had a +farmer's almanac and a flannel chest-protector, we'd be quite +complete." + +Weldon laughed. Then he beckoned to a little trooper standing beside +the nearest ant-hill. + +"Paddy," he said gravely; "these toys are excellent toys. If +anything should happen to me, I'll will them to you." + +Paddy thrust his hand into his pocket, drew out his own nightcap and +dangled it by its khaki-colored tip. + +"And look at it!" he said slowly. "The spirit is willing and full of +peace; but what would I be doing with that thing, I who never had a +hat on my head till I was ten years old, let alone a cap?" + +"Wrap your feet in it, then," Carew suggested. "It's large enough +for them both. Paddy, who eats at your ant-hill?" + +The little Irishman winked knowingly. + +"Them as invites theirselves, first off. If it's you and Mr. Weldon, +so much the better for Paddy. The rum ration is doubled, the day; +knowing the habits of you both, I'm thinking I see my way to getting +six times gloriously drunk. There's beer by the hogshead, too. It'll +be a mighty Christmas dinner, the first in years I've eaten without +cooking." + +"You generally eat it raw?" Carew questioned blandly. + +"Praised be Patrick, no; but it's Paddy who has done the cooking. +This year, I am free from my pots and kettles, and can eat with the +best of them. Little Canuck dear, don't ever enlist as a cook. +Nothing spoils the stomach of you like the smell of the warming +broth." + +"You like the change, then, Paddy?" Weldon asked, as he thriftily +packed up his parcel and stowed it away in his pocket, with an eye +to the gratitude of Kruger Bobs. + +"Like, is it? I rejoice greatly and shout, as the Book bids us. It's +a man's work I'm doing now; it's with men that I am doing that work, +and it's a man who leads me on to do that work, meaning Captain +Frazer." + +"Where is the Captain now?" + +Paddy dropped down on the ground, midway between his friends and his +ant-hill. + +"Over yonder, doing the work of an honest man and a warrior." + +"That goes without saying. What now?" + +But Paddy chose to speak in metaphors. + +"He's thrown down his sword and picked up his bottle," he responded +enigmatically. + +"Not drinking?" Weldon asked incredulously. + +"No, little one; not doing, but doing by. He's administering advice +and physic to them cormyrants of Queenslanders. The Colonials are a +hard race to manage and a greedy." Paddy spoke with an accent of +extreme disfavor. + +"What have the poor Queenslanders done?" + +"Poor it is; not poor in spirit, but poor in judgment. They've +converted the top course of their dinner into the bottom course of +their breakfast, and now they're suffering according. Next time, +when their kyind officers order them up, each a little Crosse and +Blackwell plum pudding, they'll know enough to eat them up hot on a +full stomach, not bolt them down cold on top of a lone layer of dog- +bread. Man is permitted to make such errors but once in his life, +without having Providence get after him and slay him. Little +Canuck?" "Paddy?" + +"The top of the ant-hill is white with heat, and the lambie must +enter the roasting tomb. Will you and Mr. Carew eat with me?" + +"We've no intention of eating anywhere else, Paddy. We know your +cooking of old." + +"It's an honor you'll be doing me, then. And, moreover--" Paddy +hesitated, with the words sticking to his lips. + +"What now?" + +"Think you the Captain--I mean the Adjutant; but he'll always be the +Captain to me--would he take it amiss, think you, little one, if I +sent him a bit of the joint, for the sake of old times? He'll like +be eating truffled ostrich and locust sauce at the mess; but Paddy'd +like to have a hand in his Christmas dinner. It's all I can do for +him, and he's done much for me." + +"Try him and see, Paddy," Weldon advised. "If I know Captain Frazer, +he'll have nothing to-day that will please him more." + +With feasting and story-telling and the inevitable letters to wife +and sweetheart, the sunshiny day lost itself in twilight and the +twilight in the chill of night. Along the line of the blockhouses +for miles away, lights began to twinkle out from the narrow +loopholes. Throughout the camp, answering lights twinkled back at +them till the night was spotted thick with dots of yellow, winking +up at the yellow stars above. And around the camp and the +blockhouses lay the dark, measureless veldt, and the veldt was very +still. + +Stillness was not in the camp, however. Even the gluttonous +Queenslanders had recovered from their woes of the morning; and, +from end to end of the great enclosure, there was a spirit of +merrymaking born of the feast day, the dinner and the unwonted +allowance of rum. In the groups scattered about the camp fires, +tongues wagged freely of home, of boyhood, of adventures in past +years. War talk was tabooed that night. According to his custom, +Tommy ignored the present and ranged at large over the remote past +and yet remoter future. + +Carew, with the easy adaptability which marked him, was the central +figure of one of the groups where he acted as a species of +toastmaster, to direct the trend of the stories and lead the +singing. Weldon sat slightly apart, watching the firelit group +before him, while his mind trailed lazily to and fro, from home, +with its holly wreaths in the windows, to Cape Town where the +flower-boxes edging a wide veranda would be a mass of geranium +blossoms now, and where, in the shady western end, would sit a tall +girl with hair the color of the yellow flame. Strangely enough, to +his honest, straightforward mind it never occurred to doubt that she +was thinking of him, sending a Christmas wish in his direction. More +than once she had given proof of her liking for him, her interest in +his concerns. Her blue eyes had met his eyes steadily, kindly. +Weldon had certain old-fashioned notions of womanhood which not all +of his social life had been able to beat out of him. Far back in his +boyhood, his mother, still a social leader at home, had told him it +was unmanly to flirt. A good and loyal woman would have no share in +flirtation; women of the other sort could have no share in his life. +Weldon was no Galahad. He had danced and dined with many women, had +given sympathy to some, chaff to others; nevertheless, his relations +with them had been curiously direct and simple. Quite unconsciously +to himself, his mother's code had become ingrained in the very fibre +of his being. And now he was ready to stand or fall by his judgment +that Ethel Dent, Cooee as he called her in his secret heart, was as +good and loyal as a woman could be. The future seemed to him so +obvious that he made no effort to forecast it. He was content to +wait. + +"Christmas is nearly over, Weldon." + +He roused himself abruptly, as Captain Frazer dropped down at his +side. + +"Yes; but the revel will outlast the day," he answered, laughing. +"Tommy is in his glory now, and it will take more than taps to make +him subside." + +"Perhaps. He has rioted most joyously. Christmas has been no empty +mockery to him." Weldon's quick ear detected a ring of melancholy in +the Captain's voice. + +"Has it to you?" + +The Captain sat silent for a moment, his eyes fixed on the winking +fires. + +"Not really. Of course, we all have been a bit homesick, and I can +see no shame in confessing it. Besides, after one gets out of his +windsor-tie stage of life, these especial holidays seem to mark time +so. One thinks back to this time, last year; and one has to wonder a +bit where he will be, a year from now. A good deal can happen in a +year." + +"For better, or for worse," Weldon added. + +The words caught the Captain's ear. + +"Yes, for better or for worse," he repeated; "in sickness and in +health. A year is a long time. Tell me, have you heard lately from +Miss Dent?" + +Long afterwards, the question came back to Weldon, with the obvious +association of ideas. Now he answered, with perfect unconcern,-- + +"Not for three or four weeks." + +"I have heard since you, then. She wrote, last week, and sent +greeting to you and Mr. Carew." + +"Thank you. Give mine back to her; that is, if you are writing." + +"I shall write, to-night," the Captain said briefly. + +"Then please send her my wishes for Christmas and New Year's both. +You might also remind her to write to me. She writes wonderfully +good letters." Turning his eyes from the fire, the Captain watched +him steadily for a moment. Unconscious of his companion's gaze, +Weldon was staring out across the camp, his lips framed to a +noiseless whistling, his face full of dreamy content. The Captain +studied the happy, resolute young face, drew a deep breath and then +turned to the fire once more. + +"Yes," he assented. "But you would know that, from hearing her +talk." + +Suddenly, Weldon's lips straightened, and he faced the Captain +directly. + +"I like Miss Dent," he said frankly. "Of course, you know that. But, +moreover, I have always felt I owed her a debt of gratitude for +introducing me to you. I know one doesn't usually say such things, +Captain Frazer," he laughed, in sudden boyish embarrassment; "but it +is a little different on Christmas night, you know. Next year, we +may be miles apart, and so, if you don't mind, I'd like to say that +you have been wonderfully good to me, this year, and that I +appreciate it." + +Captain Frazer took the outstretched hand, slim, but hard now, and a +bit stubby about the nails. + +"Thank you, Weldon," he answered. "This may be our only Christmas +together, and I am glad you told me." + +The silence about them was broken by the voices of the soldiers +singing around the camp fires and by the bagpipes playing somewhere +across the distance. Then, after a little, they fell to talking of +other things, with the natural antipathy of healthy men to any +recurrence of a momentary outburst of sentiment. + +Around them, the fires flared and flamed across the darkness; beyond +them, the veldt stretched away, sinister, mysterious; and from above +the stars twinkled down upon them, smiling a Christmas blessing +alike on those who were doomed to glory and those who were doomed to +death. For an instant, the sudden pause in the singing and laughter +seemed typical of the short, sudden pause in their active lives. +Then, as the Captain rose, the singing broke out once more, Carew's +voice leading. + +"Good-night, Weldon. I must go back to my quarters." + +"And to your letters?" + +"Yes, to my letters. And may next Christmas be good to us both!" + +Weldon rose and saluted, then stood looking after his companion as +he walked away, head and shoulders erect and his lips smiling +slightly, as if in anticipation of the task before him. And, +meanwhile, from the fire near by came the lusty chorus,-- + + "A little brown cot, a shady green spot, + No happier home I find. + My heart's fairly gone, for I love only one, + She's the gi-irl I le-eft behind." + +The voices, rollicking even in their sentimentality, dropped away +into silence; the fire flared up and then suddenly died away into +darkness. But, even in the darkness, Weldon could see the dim +outline of the Captain's figure, moving steadily forward along his +self-appointed way. + + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + + +Lord Kitchener, one night in early February, was sitting on the apex +of a vast triangle in the northern end of the Orange River Colony. +Two sides of the triangle were made up of long lines of blockhouses, +strung on a chain of barbed-wire fencing. The blockhouses were of +loop-holed stone or iron with iron roofs, and they were separated +from each other by only a few hundred yards. The barbed-wire chain +which strung together these zigzag lines was five strands wide, and +it was edged with a five-foot trench and now and then with an +additional length of stone wall. Beyond the fences were the railroad +lines, and up and down over the tracks armored trains carrying +search-lights were running to and fro, to shed all possible light +upon the fences and upon the enclosure beyond. The third side of the +triangle consisted of an infinite number of men in khaki, and its +density varied entirely according to its position. At first, it +opened out to a thin line of troopers scattered over the arc of an +immense circle; then it drew in until an army stood in fighting +array straight across the veldt from Heilbron to Kroonstad. And +Wolvehoek was the apex of the triangle. + +Experience had taught the master brain of the British army that it +was useless longer to chase De Wet up and down over the face of the +earth. The Boer general was familiar with every crack and cranny of +that earth. He knew where to hide, where to dodge, where to scurry +away as fast as his convoy train could bear him company. Behind him, +plucky, but totally in ignorance of the natural advantages of the +country, toiled and perspired and skirmished the British army. +Horses were exhausted, men were killed and supply wagons were +captured, all to little or no purpose. If the quarry could not be +taken by direct pursuit, it was needful to have recourse to the +methods of the ranch. Pursuit failing, it was time for a round-up. + +To this end, the Orange River Colony had been marked off into +sections by the rows of blockhouses strung upon barbed wire. Drive +after drive had been made into these enclosures; and every drive had +brought its bag of game. But still the general himself had eluded +them. Early in February, however, a giant drive had been planned, +directed away from the enclosure in order that, once De Wet took +refuge in his usual trick of doubling back upon his pursuers, he +should find himself caught in the open trap. And, secure in the +ultimate success of his plan, Lord Kitchener waited at Wolvehoek in +expectation of its end. + +The drive had been made, De Wet had doubled, and now the base of the +triangle was flowing in upon him, fully confident of success at +last. And the base was in part made up of the South African Light +Horse, and Carew and Weldon were of that Horse, and they rejoiced +accordingly. + +Nightfall of the sixth found the quarry well inside the triangle, +and the South African Light Horse drawn up in a straight line +running westward from Lindley. The officers slept in their boots, +that night, and every trooper held himself tense in his blankets, +ready to cease snoring at an instant's notice. And far away to the +northward, the moving search-lights carved the frosty darkness with +their blinding cones of light. + +Weldon was ordered out on picket duty, that night. All day long, he +had ridden hard, until even the zeal of Piggie had begun to flag. +Nevertheless, as the broad stripe of yellow reluctantly died out of +the western sky, his excited brain denied to his tired muscles the +sleep which they demanded. Accordingly, it was a relief when his +orders came, and he found himself advancing cautiously out into the +shadowy veldt. + +Contrary to his usual mood when on picket, Weldon had no sense of +loneliness, that night. Reaching away from him on either hand was +the huge enclosing wall of humanity, pacing to and fro on picket +duty, guarding the blockhouses, patrolling the wire fences between. +Every man was alert to his duty; every nerve was taut with the +consciousness that somewhere within the cordon was the leader who +heretofore had escaped them, that each man was a link forged in the +endless chain which was stretched around the invisible enemy. And, +meanwhile, the starless sky and the waiting chain were equally +silent and equally freighted with mystery. And the future seemed +full of portent and very near. + +Then, as the midnight hour swung past him, Weldon heard the rustle +of a quiet footfall. It was Captain Frazer's voice that answered his +challenge. + +"I was looking for you, Weldon," he added. + +"For anything especial?" + +"No. I felt restless and couldn't sleep, so I thought I would go the +round of the pickets. They said you were out here. Where is Carew?" + +"In my sleeping-bag. I don't encourage him for a neighbor just now. +He draws too much fire." + +The Captain laughed softly. + +"He is an unlucky beggar. Eight, nine, how many times is it that he +has been hit? He ought to engage a private nurse." + +"He has." And Weldon explained the little scene at the door of the +hospital tent. + +"Happy fellow! He deserves her, though. But it is an ideal +combination, that of nurse and soldier," the Captain answered +lightly. Then he asked, "What sort of a day have you had?" + +"Rousing. Now the question is: what sort of a night are we going to +have?" + +"The night of our lives, I suspect," the Captain replied, still in +the low tone in which all their talk had been made. "The orders are +to close in at daylight, and work the game up towards Wolvehoek; +but, if I know anything at all of De Wet, he won't wait till +daylight." + +"You think he will fight?" + +"If he does, it will be a fight to the finish," the Captain said +gravely. + +Weldon's grip tightened on his rifle. + +"When will it come?" + +"Heaven only knows. Probably just before light. He will take this +end of things, on account of avoiding the railroads and--" + +Weldon's hand shut on his arm. + +"Hush! What's that?" + +Swiftly the Captain's gravity vanished, and he laughed. + +"By George, here they are!" he exclaimed. + +From the veldt to the northward, there came a confused din of +rushing, trampling feet; a cloud of dust, lifted on the night +breeze, swept down upon them; and then a herd of stampeding cattle +dashed madly past, noses to earth and tails lashing in furious fear. +An instant later, the darkness to the left was shattered by dots of +light, and the air snapped with the double crack of Mauser rifles. +Far to the northward, though muffled by distance, there was more +firing, and yet more; and ever the moving searchlights carved their +way to and fro through the inky night. + +Like a dog on the scent and ready for the plunge, Captain Frazer had +straightened to the full of his height and stood tense, waiting an +instant to measure the scope of the coming fight. + +"It's a row, sure enough; and thank God, I'm in it!" he said quietly +then. "Come back to the line, Weldon. There'll be work for us all, +in a few minutes." + +Even as he spoke, and while they were hurrying back to the squadron, +a random shot pierced the darkness just before them, and a bullet +whirred close above their heads. Another shot tossed up a spray of +dust at their feet, and a third fell full in the tent where Carew +was swiftly tightening his belts and assuring himself that his +bandoliers were full. + +They found the camp already humming like a hive of angry bees. A +small matter of forty miles a day counted for nothing to men wakened +from heavy sleep to face the firing of an invisible foe. There was +no need of the murmured report that De Wet had bidden his followers +break through the British chain wherever its links were weakest. +Instinctively each man threw himself into fighting array, convinced +that the present minute marked the climax of the past days. + +And, meanwhile, the limitless darkness shut down over the determined +cordon of British men facing steadily inward towards the foe which +they could not see; over the scattered knots of Boer horsemen, +secure in their full knowledge of every yard of the ground, riding +forward to fight their way through the chain into the veldt beyond. +And, far to the northward, De Wet was lurking in shadow long enough +to cut the wires and then ride away with his trio of faithful +followers. + +To Weldon, fresh from the darkness and silence of the open veldt, it +seemed as if, of a sudden, the frosty night were tattered into +shreds. As the fight waxed hot about him, he lost all memory of the +intermediate stages. At one instant, all had been still and dim; at +another, the air before him was thick with vivid rifle flashes, his +ears were full of the strident din of flying bullets, of shouting +men, of squealing, moaning horses. For a time, he could see nothing +of the enemy but the flashing dots of fire. Then the dots drew +nearer, closed up, and the din was increased by the rattle of fixing +bayonets, by the dull, sucking sound of steel prodded into soft +masses, and by the thud of falling bodies. And always from the outer +circle the pitiless rain of bullets came splashing down upon them, +striking impartially on friend and on foe. + +Side by side in the foremost rank, Weldon and Carew were fighting +like tigers. Carew's cheek was gashed by a passing bullet, and +Weldon's coat showed dark and wet over his left shoulder; but +neither man was conscious of pain, or of fear, or of anything else +than a surly determination to check the maddening rush before them. +Carew was slashing about him with all the strength of arm and +bayonet; but Weldon, disdaining his bayonet, was firing with a +steady aim which sent one man and then another to join the heap on +the ground at his feet. + +A second bullet grazed his wrist, and a horseman swept down upon +him. For an instant, he wavered. Then he straightened his shoulders +and took careful aim. From ten feet away, he had heard a ringing +order, and the order had been given, not in the voice of his own +captain, but in that of Captain Frazer who, as ranking officer, had +taken command of the fight into which chance had led him. Weldon's +every nerve answered to the tonic of that voice. Not since +Vlaakfontein had he been under its command. Nevertheless, the old +spell was upon him, and he responded to its call. An instant before, +the rush towards him had seemed indomitable. Those furious, fighting +horsemen could not be stayed in their course. Now he braced himself +for the shock of their coming, while tired hand and blurring eye +roused themselves to do the bidding of his brain. He was dimly aware +that Paddy had struggled forward to his other side and, shoulder to +shoulder with him, was helping to beat back the iron-like force +pressing down upon them. Then, with the keen grasp of trifling +detail which often marks the supreme moment of mental exhaustion, he +became conscious that the hairy tail which brushed across his face +was unduly coarse and tangled, while a sudden cheer from around him +told that the Boers were turning in flight. + +Dazed, he drew his hand across his face, and stared wonderingly at +the scarlet drops on his fingers. Then he turned and looked down at +Paddy with a whimsical, questioning smile. Paddy repeated his query. + +"Are you hurt, little one?" he demanded, for the second time, as he +shook Weldon's arm. + +Weldon steadied at the touch. + +"No; only scratched a bit. It is nothing to last at all. Are you all +right?" + +Paddy shut his hand over a shattered finger. + +"Glory be! And the snakes of Boers is wriggling off to their holes. +And now, where's the Captain?" + +They found him a little apart from the line, slightly to the front +and close beside a scattered heap of bearded men. His face was white +and the lines of his face were rigid and drawn; but he hailed them +just as he always had been used to do. + +"My luck has changed," he added quietly. "They have taken my leg, +this time. Still, it's not so very painful. I'll fill my pipe first, +and then will you two fellows help me back, till we can find an +ambulance?" + + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + + +In a quiet corner of the crowded hospital at Johannesburg, one +narrow bed was screened away from its neighbors. Beside the bed sat +Ethel Dent, and Weldon leaned against the wall beyond. Both of them +were smiling bravely down into the dark-fringed blue eyes which met +their eyes with a steady wishfulness. With the end so plain in +sight, why keep up the pretence of being blind to its approach? + +An operation had been the final chance, and the chance had failed. +Out from the stupor of ether, out from the hours of bewildering +pain, Captain Frazer had come back to an interval of full +consciousness, of fuller knowledge that, for him, this painless +interval was but the prelude to the final painless sleep. +Nevertheless, the man who had helped other men to die unflinchingly +was facing death with a grave, unflinching smile, albeit life to him +was good and full of promise. The interval was short. He would pass +through it in manlike fashion, and, meanwhile, give thanks that +beside his bed sat the one woman in whom his whole future so long +had centered. + +The slow moments passed by, unheeded. It was an hour since the +surgeons had gone away; it was nearly an hour since Alice Mellen had +followed the surgeons. Instinctively she realized that her place was +otherwhere. There was no need now for skilled nurses. Ethel could do +all the little which would be required, and it was Ethel's right to +stay. + +Since Alice had left them, no word had been spoken. The Captain had +little strength for words as yet. It was taking all his energy and +courage to face the truth and to accept it. Only an hour before, his +crippled career had seemed to him unbearable. Now, as he lay with +his eyes fixed on the girl beside him, he realized how much of +potential sweetness that dreary alternative had held. And yet, Fate +had drawn him into the battle, and it was something that he had met +Fate bravely and in the foremost rank. So far, he had never funked a +fight; if it took his last bit of strength, he would go pluckily +through this last, worse fight which he was destined to face. He +stirred slightly, and shut his teeth on his lower lip; but his eyes +never dropped from Ethel's face. From the farther side of the bed, +Weldon, too, was watching Ethel. If he lived to full fivescore +years, he could never forget her face as he had met her at the +hospital door, that morning. Exhausted with the excitement of the +battle, stiff with his half-dressed wounds, soiled and untidy and +haggard, he had paused beside the ambulance while the attendants had +lifted the stretcher and borne the Captain up the low flight of +steps. Then, like a man in a dream, he had followed along behind +them until, on the very threshold, he had raised his heavy eyes to +see Ethel standing before him, a broad shaft of sunshine pouring +down upon her to rest in the locks of sunshiny hair which straggled +out from beneath her crisp white cap. + +"Cooee!" he said huskily, as he took her hand. Then, for the first +time in all those terrible hours since the battle, his lips had +quivered, and two big, boyish tears had rolled out across his +cheeks. + +Already the fight seemed to him to be months old. From the first, it +had been the Captain's wish that Weldon should go with him to the +hospital, and Weldon would have allowed no other man to go in his +place. Wounded and weak from loss of blood, nevertheless he forgot +his own weakness as he saw the leg, shattered by two bullets, +explosive bullets such as are denied to warfare of any but barbarous +nations. Young though he was, Weldon had seen many a man wounded +before now. He was not slow to realize the nature of the +alternatives which lay before the man who was at once his hero and +his friend. Mercifully, he had as yet no knowledge how soon the one +alternative must be taken from him. + +The case was too grave a one for the surgeons of the field hospital. +In after years, that ambulance journey into Kroonstad seemed branded +upon Weldon's memory: the baking heat of the February sun, the +interminable miles of dusty road stretching away between other +interminable miles of grassy veldt, scarred and seamed here and +there with ridges of naked rock. And at last the ambulance had +jogged into Kroonstad, only to find that no help lay in the hospital +there, that the journey must be dragged onward through a night ride +to Johannesburg. + +If the jolting, crawling ambulance had been bad, the jarring train +was infinitely worse. The Captain made no complaints; he was +grateful for every slight attention; he even forced himself to joke +a little now and then. Nevertheless, Weldon, sitting beside him and +occasionally laying his own fingers across the steady hand on the +blanket, was maddened by the noise of the engine, by the ceaseless +thud, thud as the wheels took every new rail, by the roar, and the +rush, and the dust which filtered in upon them. There was nothing he +could do. He merely sat there beside his friend, and thought. +Occasionally, he thought of Ethel; but, for the most part, his mind +was on the man before him, the man whose active career all at once +had been cut in two. Now and then he thought of the one who had +chosen to fire those bullets, taboo of all but the most brutal +warfare. At such times, he rose and fell to pacing restlessly up and +down the car. Then he controlled himself and resumed his seat. + +Moment by moment, almost second by second, the dreary night had worn +away. It was full morning when the train had halted inside the +familiar station. After his vigil, the healthy stir of the streets +appeared to Weldon like the confused picture of a dream, and it had +been like a man in a dream that he had been driven away to the +hospital. Then, on the steps, he had seen Ethel, and the dream had +been shattered, giving way, for the instant, to the perfect +happiness of reality. + +But the surgeons at Johannesburg had shaken their heads. The delay, +although unavoidable, had been full of danger. One only chance +remained, and they would take that chance. Weldon had lingered until +he was ordered away; then, with Ethel beside him, he had gone to +find a doctor who could dress his own wounds and make him fit to +face the ordeal which he knew was awaiting him. For one short +moment, he had felt Ethel's hands busy about his shoulder and head +and wrist, had rejoiced in the quiet strength of their soothing +touch. For another moment, their eyes had met; but no word had been +spoken between them. Then Alice had come to them, bringing the +surgeon's verdict. That had been an hour before. Now they still were +there, watching the slow approach of the inevitable summons. + +Slowly the day waxed--and waned. For the waning life, there was no +interval of waxing. Slowly, steadily, by infinitesimal degrees, Leo +Frazer was sinking down into the Valley of the Shadow. Once the head +surgeon had stepped behind the screens and bent over the bed. Only +Ethel had seen the brief contraction of his brows; but no one of +them was deceived by his cheery words of parting. And still the blue +eyes rested upon Ethel, as if seeking to gain from her the answer to +some unspoken question, as if begging her to share with him some +fraction of her quiet strength. Now and then Ethel wondered at her +own quiet. This was the second week of her promised month with her +cousin; but it was the first time she had come face to face with +death, the first time, too, that her work had taken on any hint of +personality. Now, suddenly confronted with these three, Death and +the two men who, during the past fourteen months, had played so +active parts in her life, she was surprised to find that she faced +them steadily and in silence. As yet, she felt no wish to make any +moan. That would come later, when her nerves had relaxed a little +from the stretching strain. And, meanwhile, as she sat watching the +face on the pillow, grieving for the waning life, now and then she +raised her eyes to the other face on the opposite side of the bed, +and told herself that Fate, harsh as it was, was yet not altogether +unpitying. Although wounded and worn and sick at heart, Weldon was +with her, and intensely alive. + +"Ethel!" + +Bending forward, she laid her strong, firm hand upon the hand of the +Captain, noting, as she did so, that the finger tips were cold to +her own warm touch. + +"Yes?" she said gently. + +"You are here? It troubles me to see. Stay with me to the end, +Ethel. It won't be so very long." + +She bowed her head; but the answer came firmly. + +"I will stay." + +There was a short silence. Then, gathering together all his +strength, the Captain went on quite steadily,-- + +"It won't be so very long, Ethel. I am sorry. I liked to live. I +have had a good time, and I had no idea that my good times were so +nearly over. Not that it would have made much difference, though. +And yet, when one comes to the end, all of a sudden, one finds a +great many things that are left unfinished." + +She made no attempt to answer. + +Gently he urged the final words upon her attention. + +"There are always so many things left unfinished," he repeated. + +"Yes," she said faintly. + +Slowly, as if its weight dragged sorely upon his failing strength, +he raised her hand to the pillow and rested his cheek upon it. + +"Don't cry, Ethel," he said then. "Of course, if I had lived, it +might have meant so much to us both." + +Involuntarily she caught her breath and made a swift gesture, as if +to withdraw her hand. Then, with a hasty glance at Weldon, leaning +against the opposite wall, she controlled herself and allowed her +hand to rest where it was. + +"It would have meant so much to all of us, Captain Frazer." + +"Perhaps. But to you and me--Ethel, I can't go out of life and give +you up!" Pitifully, longingly, the blue eyes stared up at her face +through the growing shadows of waning day and waning life. +Longingly, although the questioning look had left them. In its place +was an infinite, contented love, an absolute trust. + +The girl nerved herself to meet his eyes. Then she drew her own eyes +away, to give another hasty, appealing glance up into Weldon's +paling face. For him, as for her, the moment was all unexpected. For +him, as for her, there was need of all the reserve strength in life +to go through it honorably and without flinching. + +Up to that very hour, no thought of Leo Frazer's love had crossed +the mind of Ethel Dent. They had been friends, good comrades, +meeting often and always with much pleasure. She had acknowledged to +herself, long since, that he was a man among men; she honored him, +admired him, cared for him as she might have cared for an only +brother. Beyond that, she could not go. Moreover, it had never +occurred to her that Captain Frazer could mistake her attitude to +himself, could differentiate her light, bright cordiality from the +cordiality she showed to other men. When she had met him first, she +had been a mere girl in character and experience; love had had scant +place in her girlish dreams. Later, Weldon had come into her life. +His coming had changed many things for her; but it had made no +change in her attitude to the Captain. She was now, as always, his +loyal, admiring friend, no less, no more. She had supposed that he +had felt the same loyal friendship for her. Too late, she realized +her mistake. + +"You must have known it all, Ethel," the Captain was saying +steadily; "how my whole life has seemed to go into yours. I have +never told you. I was sure you knew it, without any telling, and I +have been waiting until the war was over, before asking you to go +home with me, as my wife. The--" he caught his breath sharply, "the +war is over for me now, dearest. I can't ask you to go home with me; +but--Tell me, Ethel, I have not been mistaken, all these months? You +have cared for me, as I have cared for you?" The last words came out +with the roundness of tone he had used in health; but there was a +weary drag to the hand that drew her hand still nearer to his cheek. +Ethel faltered. Then, soldier-like, she braced herself to fight to a +finish. It was not her fault that the man had mistaken her friendly, +cordial liking for something deeper, infinitely more lasting. She +had never consciously played with him, never sought to win his love. +Blame there was none; it was all only a mistake, albeit a terrible +one. Nevertheless-- + +Desperately she glanced up from the blue eyes, still so wishfully +fixed upon her own, up to the drawn, white face of the haggard man +on the farther side of the bed. In that instant, the girl fought +madly with herself. Then her eyes dropped back to the bed once more. +Eternity and time; a final short, comforting word to the one, a long +explanation to the other. The mistake, if mistake there were, had +been all of her doing. Bravely she would take the bitter +consequences. Captain Frazer's day was passing fast. The night +remained for her talk with Weldon. Her eyes dropped back to the bed, +and her hand yielded itself to the pressure of the ice-cold fingers. + +"Yes," she said slowly and so faintly that Weldon, standing +breathless, could scarcely hear the words; "I have cared for you, as +you have cared for me." + +The fingers tightened over her hand; but the lids drooped heavily +above the dark blue eyes. + +"Dearest--girl." Then, smiling to himself, Captain Leo Frazer fell +asleep. The next moment counted itself out by slow seconds. Then +Ethel raised her head and turned to smile drearily up at Weldon. + +Instead, she found herself smiling up at an empty wall. Harvard +Weldon had vanished and had left for her no word of farewell. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + + +Up Commissioner Street and down Commissioner Street and around and +around Market Square tramped a haggard man in khaki who surveyed all +things with dull, unseeing eyes. On his cheek, an inch or so above +his stubbly beard, was a wide cross of plaster, and his left wrist +wore a narrow bandage. He walked with quick, nervous strides; yet +every now and then he halted to rest for a moment. Then he hurried +on again, as if pursued by some unseen, but malignant foe. + +Twice he turned northward and paused before the hospital, staring +irresolutely up at the lighted windows. Then, facing about abruptly, +he moved on, swiftly, but with the mechanical tread of a man in a +dream. Once he found himself resting on the steps of the Jewish +synagogue. The next time he roused himself to take note of his +surroundings, he was at the Berea Estate, following Hospital Hill +straight to the eastward. It was then that he had turned about and +faced back to the hospital. A scant half-dozen hours before, that +hospital had held what was all the world to him. Now, without +warning, that all had proved to be naught. + +The blow had come crashing upon him, straight between the eyes and +so suddenly that there had been no time for him to brace himself to +meet it. From the moment of his facing Ethel in the doorway of the +hospital, that noon, he had been sure that the talk which he would +have with her, that evening, could bring but the one ending. At +sight of the soiled and haggard man before her, her blue eyes had +lighted with something far more than pleased surprise. His appearing +had been quite unexpected; her meeting with him had been the naked +impulse of her girlish heart. And, all that endless day, her grief +for the Captain had in no way hidden her evident pleasure in his own +presence. And then, all at once, had come the end, unexpected and +hence doubly crushing. His young, newborn happiness was as little +strong to bear the blow as were his exhausted body and his shattered +nerve. Like a wild beast wounded to the death, he had crept silently +away, to go through his agony, unseen. + +Standing under the fierce glare of the electric light by the +hospital gate, his appearance would wellnigh have baffled the +recognition of his mother. Soiled and stained and tattered, his head +sunk between his shoulders, he looked a feeble man of middle years. +Dark shadows lay around his heavy gray eyes, and the corners of his +mouth drooped pitifully. And, somewhere inside that building, was +the girl who had snatched away from him what was dearer than life +itself. For six long months she had been the incentive to all of his +best work; it had been her influence which finally had led him to +come back into the firing line; it had been in the hope for the +future, a hope growing less and less vague as the months passed by, +that he had been willing and glad to prolong his stay through one +more torrid African summer. And to what end? + +Strange to say, it never once occurred to him to try to win her love +now, after all that bad passed. Still less did it occur to him to +doubt the truth of her final words to the Captain. Weldon had missed +the look of appealing anguish in the blue eyes which she had lifted +to his; but he had heard the low, steady voice, had seen the +pressure of the living fingers answer to the slight movement of the +hand already growing cold. He had heard, and seen. It was enough. +Always he had believed implicitly in Ethel's truth. There was no +reason he should distrust her now. It was only that he had been an +egregious ass to think that be could win her love, in the face of a +man like Captain Leo Frazer. With a mighty effort, he straightened +his shoulders, faced the wing where he knew the Captain would now be +lying and reverently removed his hat. Then, for one last time, his +eyes swept over the building and, turning away, he crawled off +towards the railway station. + +And, meanwhile, alone in a room behind one of those brightly-lighted +windows, a girl sat huddled together, her crossed arms on her knees +and her face buried in her arms, while she wailed to herself over +and over again,-- + +"He might have waited! He might have waited! My God in heaven, what +have I done? But at least he might have waited!" + +A commissariat train was leaving Johannesburg at two o'clock the +next morning. His pass in his hand, Weldon clambered drearily on the +train for the long ride back to Kroonstad. Motion of any kind was +better than remaining longer in Johannesburg. Nevertheless, the +jolting of the train was wellnigh unbearable. His shoulder throbbed, +and the dull pain in his head was maddening. He had passed the stage +of weariness, however, where one is conscious of exhaustion. An +ever-tightening strain was upon him. He could not rest now; he must +go on, and on, and on, faster and ever faster, until at last +something should snap and quiet perforce should overtake him. + +Early dawn found him at Kroonstad. Sleep had been impossible for +him; he had no appetite for food, and it took an ever-increasing +effort for him to pull himself together. Like a man mounting a +steep, pathless hill, he tried to drag himself up above the +consciousness of his aching head and throbbing wounds; but it was +not to be done. At the station he halted irresolutely. Then of a +sudden he faced towards the great hospital tent. + +"I want something to steady me a bit," he said briefly to the first +doctor he met there. "I have two or three scratches, and I am +feeling fagged. Give me something to help me get a grip on myself +again, for I can't spend time to be ill." + +The doctor remonstrated; but Weldon's answer was peremptory. + +"I tell you, I can't stop. Give me something and let me go. I've +work at Lindley that must be done, and a convoy leaves in an hour." + +An hour later he was trudging over the veldt in the direction of +Lindley. Lindley was forty miles away; the roads were dusty, and the +sun of early February struck down upon him with the heat of a +belated summer. Nevertheless, at Lindley was his squadron, and with +his squadron would be work. Never in all his past life had Weldon +known this imperative need for work. In it now, and in its +accompanying excitement and in its inevitable risk, would lie his +ultimate salvation. For him, the future held but one plain duty, and +that duty was to forget. + +The experienced eye of the doctor had told him that the gaunt +trooper was a sick man; it had also told him that the trooper's +determination would outweigh his sickness, at least for the present +crisis. He made no effort to penetrate the cause of that +determination. He merely yielded to it. A doctor less wise would +have ordered Weldon into bed. This one saw further. He knew that a +delicately adjusted machine often receives its worst damage from the +friction needed to stop the whirring wheels. Better to wait and let +them run down, untouched. + +The forty miles from Kroonstad to Lindley were reducing themselves +from a geographical fact to a matter of physical and mental anguish. +There had been no rain for days, and under the burning sun, the +dusty veldt seemed dancing up and down before Weldon's tired, +feverish eyes. Now he passed through a stretch of bare and burned- +out sand; now he tramped over patches of tall dry grass; now he +plodded wearily around a heap of smooth black stones. Brick-red ant- +hills higher than his knees dotted themselves over the veldt, their +shell-like surface shielding a crowded insect colony within. Ant- +bear holes lurked unseen in his pathway, tripping his heedless +steps; and an occasional partridge went whirring upward, making him +start aside in causeless terror at the unwonted sound. And over it +all rested the glaring, shimmering, blinding light, laden with +myriad particles of dazzling red-brown dust. Later still, the red- +brown color vanished, and he walked for weary leagues over the fire- +blackened veldt where the black rocks offered no contrast to the +eye, and where the air was heavy with ashes caught up and scattered +by the light breeze which heralded the coming night. And it was all +so lonely, so hostile, so limitless. But no more lonely and hostile +and limitless than the desolate future which stretched away and away +before his gaze. + +As yet he dared not trust his mind to rest too much upon the past. +The future demanded his whole attention. It was a far cry for him +from the present up to his limit of threescore years and ten. Still, +he would not funk it now. That was the part of a sneak. Now, as +always, he would stand by his young resolution to play out the game, +to abide by the rules and to take the consequences. Nevertheless, it +would be weary work to play out the game to its end, when the end +held nothing for him in its keeping. His mind trailed off upon all +sorts or vague corollaries scarcely connected with the fact. He +recalled it with a jerk. + +The Captain was dead. Ethel had loved the Captain. She had told the +Captain of her love. As consequence, she could not love himself, +Harvard Weldon. But he loved her. He had loved her for thirteen +months and twenty-one days. Carefully he reckoned up the time; then, +to make sure, he counted it off upon his fingers. Yes, he had loved +her ever since that first lunch on the steamer, when she had snubbed +him so roundly. He did not know it then. Looking backward, he knew +it now. And there had been Cape Town, and Johannesburg, and Cape +Town again. He stumbled into the open mouth of an ant-bear's hole +and came down with a crash, full upon his wounded shoulder. Strange +that his step should be so uncertain! Strange that he should feel so +little inclination to swear! As he picked himself up, he wondered +vaguely whether his pipe would be refreshing; but his wonder +stopped, impotent to lead his dangling hand in the direction of his +pocket. Then his mind took up its interrupted story, its record of +brief, categorical facts. + +He had meant to go home, that winter. Instead, Ethel had fanned the +flame of his desire to go back to the front. He had left her, one +evening, to pass a sleepless night, and, the next morning, to take +himself out to enlist for another six months of service. The six +months were nearly ended. Only three weeks remained. And then? +Nothing. + +The second night found him still far from Lindley. He had plodded on +mechanically, stumbling often, but halting never, while his mind +went whirling on and on, over and over the same old questions. His +lips were feverish, and his eyes burned hotly, so it was almost with +a sense of relief that he greeted the swift chill which followed the +dropping of the sun. Over his head, the great arch of the sky shaded +from east to west through every tint of purple and blue and +turquoise and emerald-green, down to the golden band of the +afterglow. Then the stars began to dot the purple, their tiny points +of light serving only to emphasize its darkness, until the full moon +swept up across the heavens, throwing its mystic silver light over +all the land and adding tenfold to the empty loneliness of the +veldt. Sleep was out of the question. He could only snuggle more +closely into his blankets and wait for morning with what grace he +could. The stopping of his physical action only increased the +swiftness of his swirling thoughts which chased each other round and +round in circling eddies about one fixed point. That point was +Ethel. + +Across the veldt at his left hand, he had watched the chain of +blockhouses which lay along the country between Kroonstad and +Lindley. Their squat outlines and the shining blue of their +corrugated iron roofs had caught his wandering attention, held it, +pinned it to other associations with those same blockhouses and, of +a sudden, had brought him to a full realization that griefs did not +come singly. He had left Johannesburg, to face a future apart from +Ethel. He was coming back to Lindley, to face a future bereft of the +Captain. + +It was full noon, the next day, when the camp came into view. +Leaving the convoy to follow in his wake, he headed straight for the +rise where he had so often sat with Carew and gossiped of all things +under the light of the sun. Then, as the round tents lay under his +eyes like rows of dots punched into relief above the surface of the +plain, he sank down on the coarse, parched grass and hid his eyes in +his shaking hands. Yet even then the pitiless circle of tragic +thoughts refused to stop their ceaseless round. + +He roused himself at a touch on his arm. Kruger Bobs, at a distance, +was eying him with a look of chastened welcome; but Carew stood +beside him, one thin, sun-tanned hand on Weldon's shoulder. + +"It's all right, old man," he was saying. "Don't try to tell me +anything about it. Kruger Bobs saw you coming, and we rode out to +meet you. Come in and rest. You look utterly done up." + +Half way back to the camp, Carew spoke again; but it was only once. + +"I told the fellows you were coming, and that you would be tired. +They will keep out of your way, till you have had time to rest up a +bit. Paddy is waiting to look out for you; but you needn't worry. He +knows when to hold his tongue. If you need anything, or if you care +to talk, send him out to look for me. Meanwhile, you need some +rest." + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + + +"For God's sake, Weldon, how long is this going to last?" + +Weldon raised his eyes from the seven-weeks-old Times in his hand, +and looked at Carew in surprise. + +"What last?" he questioned blankly. + +Carew sprang to his feet and began to pace up and down with +impatient, nervous steps. + +"This. Everything," he said. + +Weldon's smile, though it went no deeper than his lips, was half +sarcastic, wholly sad. + +"Specify," he advised languidly. "My mind can't grasp your +generalities." + +Carew took a few more turns. Then he came back to Weldon's side. + +"It's this way, Harvey," he said slowly, for the moment lapsing into +the name by which he had called his friend in their childhood; +"since you came back from Johannesburg, you've not been the same +man. What has done it?" + +Weldon's lips shut with a tightness which curled the corners +downward. Then, as he looked into the questioning eyes and anxious +face of his companion, his own eyes softened, and he changed his +mind in regard to keeping silence. + +"It was a hard journey," he said evasively, yet with a kindly accent +to the words. "Such days take it out of a man, Carew. I shall brace +up in time." + +Carew shook his head. + +"That is just what you must not do. You have braced too long, as it +is. Your wounds were nothing but scratches. They healed up easily +enough, and you say, yourself, that they don't trouble you; but you +look--" + +"Well?" "As if things had ended for you," Carew blurted out +desperately. + +Slowly, wearily, Weldon lifted his eyes to his friend's face. + +"Well, they have," he said, with an intonation of dreary finality. + +"Rot!" Carew observed profanely. "Look here, Weldon, you've no +business to funk in this fashion. It's not like you, either." + +The word stung Weldon. He scrambled to his feet and stood to +attention. + +"Carew, no other man could say that to me," he said slowly. + +Carew maintained his ground. + +"No other man cares for you as I do, Harvey. We've been like +brothers, and I have been too proud of your record to be willing to +sit by, quiet, and see you spoil the last round of the game. There +is too much at stake." Weldon raised his brows. + +"What is at stake?" he asked coldly. + +"Your whole army record. Your manhood. Your--" Carew hesitated; then +he nerved himself to speak out plainly; "your love for Miss Dent." + +Weldon shut his teeth and drew in his breath between them, while the +dark red blood rushed across his face, and then died away, to leave +in its place a grayish pallor. He put out his hand, as if to ward +off something. + +"For God's sake, don't!" he said huskily. + +Carew watched him for an instant. Then he stepped forward and linked +his arm through that of Weldon. + +"There's nothing doing now," he said quietly. "Let's go for a walk. +We can talk better, while we're moving, you know." + +"But what is the use of talking?" Weldon objected listlessly. + +Carew looked into the heavy eyes, the overcast face of his friend. +Not once during the past three weeks since Weldon's return from +Johannesburg had the cloud lifted. + +"You must talk, Weldon," he said firmly. "If you don't talk, you'll +go mad. I've watched you, day after day, hoping you would speak of +your own free will. I have hated to urge you. It seemed rather +beastly to drive you into telling me things that are none of my +business. But they are my business, in a sense. There's nobody in +all South Africa who can go back farther with you into the past. +That alone ought to count for something." + +Handsome still, in spite of his dark sunburn and his time-stained +khaki, Carew's face was wonderfully attractive, as it looked into +that of his friend. Weldon felt the attraction, even while he was +wondering why it was so powerless to move him. He liked Carew; since +the death of the Captain, no other man was linked more closely with +his life. Nevertheless, Carew's words left him cold. All things did +leave him cold of late. It was as if, in the fierce conflagration of +that one hour in the Johannesburg hospital, the fires of his nature +had burned themselves out beyond the possibility of being rekindled. +His intellect told him that Carew was in the right of it, that his +alternatives were speech or madness; but he faced the alternatives +with an absolute indifference. His intellect also told him that, for +the past three weeks, Carew's kindness had been unremitting; that +his care had served as a buffer between himself and the clumsy +tactlessness of their mates; that his sympathy now was leading him +to try to storm the barrier of his own reserve; but he met Carew's +advances with an icy front which could be thawed neither from +outside nor from within. It was not his will to be ungrateful; it +was beyond his present power to show the gratitude which he really +felt. And Carew, with the supreme insight which marks the friendship +of men at times, interpreted Weldon's mood aright and forebode to +take offence. + +Nevertheless, watching his friend closely, Carew had judged the case +to be serious. He had felt no surprise at the state of collapse in +which Weldon had struggled back into camp. The battle, the half- +dressed wounds, the nerve-racking journey, the watching the slow +approach of death and the accepting the fact of the loss of a valued +friend: all these were enough to wreck the vitality of a man. With +an almost womanish tenderness, Carew had brought his friend back to +the tent, and made him over to the care of Paddy who gave up all +things else, for the sake of his little Canuck. All that afternoon +and night, Weldon lay passive, inert, while Paddy bathed him, fed +him, poured cool, soft things over his wounds, fed him again, and +then sat down beside him with his own stubby hand resting against +Weldon's limp fingers. But, the next morning, Weldon rose, buttoned +and belted himself with elaborate care. Then, disregarding the +implorings of Carew and Paddy, who were terrified at the steady, +unseeing look in his gray eyes and at the tense lines about his +lips, he went to his captain and demanded his old position of +regimental rough rider. + +He obtained it. In fact, it was given, not only freely, but with +joy. In all the regiment, no one else had been able to subdue such +wild mounts as Weldon. In former days, he had stopped at little. Now +he stopped at nothing. Horse-sickness, the scourge of South Africa, +was in the land; and the underfed, overworked mounts yielded to it +with pitiful ease. And, meanwhile, the need for horses was greater +than ever. Drive after drive through the country about Kroonstad was +bringing in the hostile Boers; but it was also bringing down the +horses. The call for new mounts was limitless; limitless, too, the +hours and the strength and the skill which Trooper Weldon put forth +to the supplying that call. He was utterly untiring; but he was +utterly reckless as well. Checked by no risk, sobered by no danger, +he rushed into risk and danger as rushes the man whose one wish is +to escape from a future of which he is in mortal, agonizing dread. + +Carew said little; he watched much, and he meditated more. At first, +he hoped all things from the healthy, outdoor life. He watched +Weldon's muscles harden, saw his appetite return and welcomed with +happy anticipations all the signs of his returning rugged strength. +Then, as the time passed by, his anxiety came back upon him in full +measure. Long days in the saddle were followed by sleepless nights; +the shadow never came out of Weldon's eyes, the alertness never came +back into his step. Lean, gaunt as a greyhound, he went about his +work with a silent, dogged endurance which took no note of the other +life about him. For Trooper Weldon, his profession had dropped to a +dull, plodding routine of danger lapping close upon the heels of +danger. And still he spoke no word of the sorrow which had brought +him to this end. + +And Carew, meanwhile, could not fail to note the increasing anxiety +with which Alice Mellen wrote of her cousin. From Alice's letters, +it appeared that Ethel, totally unnerved by the death of Captain +Frazer, had begged so piteously to be released from her hospital +work that she had finally been sent home to Cape Town. She had +seemed to be far from well, when she had left Johannesburg; +nevertheless, she had no sooner reached home than she had plunged +into the midst of the whirlpool of social life where she was said to +be the gayest of the gay. + +Cape Town, that fall, was facing the end of the war and the +consequent departure of the swarm of young Englishmen who had made +their headquarters there during the past two years. Accordingly, it +resolved to make the most of the short time remaining to it; and the +early weeks of the year saw the little city neglecting all other +things for the sake of making merry with her fast-vanishing heroes. +And, in all the round of merry-making, Ethel Dent was in evidence, +bright and flashing as the diamonds that blazed on her shoulder, and +as soft. Her wit was ceaseless, her energy untiring. Always the +middle of a group, she yet always held herself within range of her +father's protection. He watched her proudly; yet his pride was +sometimes mingled with alarm, as he saw the waxy whiteness of her +ears and the dark shadows which lay beneath her eyes. It was plain +to him that all was not well with the girl; yet he was wholly at a +loss as to the cause of the trouble. + +Strange to say, he never once thought of Weldon; neither did his +mind linger long upon the Captain. True, Ethel and Captain Frazer +had been good friends; but so had Ethel been good friends with many +another man. The secret of that last hour of the Captain's life was +buried in two hearts. Weldon could not speak of it; Ethel would not. +And so, in the eyes of her friends, Ethel's experience had been +sorrowful, but scarcely touched with tragedy. The heroic passing of +a casual friend is no cause for a lasting change in the nature of a +happy-tempered girl. + +However, Alice had noted the change and, quite unable to account for +it, she had commented upon it to Carew. Her letter, coming that same +morning, had quickened his slow-forming resolution to speak. Taken +quite by itself, her account of Ethel would have made scant +impression upon him. Taken in connection with what he had seen of +Weldon, it forced him to draw certain conclusions which, though +wrong in detail, were comparatively accurate in their main outlines. + +He and Weldon came back from their walk, wrapped in the silence of +perfect understanding. Carew had asked few questions; Weldon had +made even fewer replies, and those replies had been brief. Ethel's +name had scarcely been mentioned between them. Their talk had mainly +concerned itself with Captain Frazer, his life, his passing, the +void he had left behind him. Only one sentence had related to the +scene in the hospital; but its brief, tragic summing up of the +situation had been sufficient. Carew had made no answer, save to +walk on for a few steps in silence, with his hand resting on the +shoulder of his friend. + +That night, he wrote to Alice. The letter was long and full of +detail. It told what he knew, what he had inferred and what he +feared. It begged her, in the name of their own sacred happiness, to +help him win the same happiness for these two who, longing to come +together, were straying always farther apart; and it ended with the +words with which he had begun his talk with Weldon, that noon,-- + +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + + +Paddy waved his thumb disrespectfully towards the rear of the +column. + +"And what can you expect of a man that goes to the wars in a fancy +petticoat, let alone a khaki apron to cover up the front of it?" he +demanded. "And look at the bare knees of 'em, for all the world like +knots in the branches of an oak-tree! They may be trained to believe +it's comfortable to walk round in public with their kneepans in +plain sight; but no man can ever make me think it's either beautiful +to the eye, or respectful in the presence of one's betters." + +"But their officers wear the same uniform, Paddy," Weldon objected. +"Who are their betters?" + +"Myself, little Canuck, and yourself, too," Paddy answered calmly. +"The maple and the shamrock, severally and together, can knock the +spots out of all the thistles that's growing." + +"Until it comes to a fight," Carew suggested, from Paddy's other +side. "The Highlanders have made their record, this time." + +But Paddy shook his head. "Wait then till the end of the chapter," +he predicted. "My turn hasn't come yet. Belike I'll be the hero of +them all. I was minding my pots and my kettles, while the Black +Watch was slinging lead up on the road into Kimberley. But, faith, +if I was one of them, with the choice before me between a glorious +death and the having to live in the sound of the bagpipes, I'd mount +a Red Cross and take a white flag in my hand and sally forth to be +seen and shot by the Boers." + +"You don't like the bagpipes, Paddy?" + +Paddy's reply was sententious. + +"Did you ever hear a pig soliloquizing to himself, just as he +crossed the tracks between the wheels of an express train? Well +then!" + +"Meanwhile," Carew observed thoughtfully; "I wonder why we are out +on this trek." + +"To escort the little Canuck with his mounts, and to study the +surface of the land, to be sure." + +Carew's eye swept the barren, desolate expanse about them. + +"It is a bit monotonous, though." + +"It's monotony that's healthy. You can't make a whole dinner off +from red pepper, and you can't make a whole campaign off from +smokeless powder. In either case, you get too much heated up, for +the show it all makes. Strike hard and eat hot at long intervals and +with exceeding unction; and, meanwhile, pause and let it soak in. +It's not the hottest fire that gives off the most blazes. And where +is that nigger of a Kruger Bobs?" + +"In among the wagons with The Nig." "Just for all the world like the +deuce of spades! The Black Watch would better adopt the two of 'em +for their colors. The Nig is a pretty bit of property; but this is +the brute for me." And Paddy bent over in the saddle to stroke the +neck of Piggie who snapped back at him testily. + +However, in all truth, the little gray broncho deserved all of +Paddy's praise. Scarred from muzzle to pastern by errant bullets, +limping slightly on one fore leg, she still had borne her master +bravely over weary miles of veldt, into many a skirmish and through +the kicking, squealing throngs of her kindred which crowded the +Lindley kraal. Long since, Weldon had discovered that the +thoroughbred Nig was an ornament; but that Piggie was a necessity. +Again and yet again, her flying feet and gritty temper had brought +him, unscathed, through perilous plights. She read his mind as by +instinct; left unguided, she guided herself with exceeding +discretion; and, upon more than one occasion, she had endured the +nervous strain of feeling a human body dangling limply above the +saddle bow, held in place by main strength of her master who, +crouching forward beneath the heavy fire, could only indicate the +way of safety by the pressure of this heel and then that against her +heaving flanks. Surely, if ever honors could be given to a faithful, +plucky little broncho, Piggie should have been gazetted for the +Distinguished Service Order. Not to the men alone is due all the +honor of victory. + +But now Piggie, fresh from a prolonged interval of resting in the +care of Kruger Bobs, felt that she was out on an excursion of pure +pleasure. Behind her trailed a long column of men and mounts and +wagons; around her was a knot of horses whom she knew well; and +before her stretched away the dry and level veldt, broken at the +sky-line by a range of hills that rose sharply in a jagged line +which culminated in one peak lifted far above all the others. + +In the very front of the column rode a score or more of the South +African Light Horse, with Weldon, for the moment, in command. The +man was showing, just then, something of the temper of his mount. It +would have been good to leave behind him the slow-moving column and +go dashing away alone, far across the level plain. A spirit of +restlessness was upon him; Paddy's utterances grew vague in his +ears, and he cast longing glances towards the range of hills to the +southward, as if eager to explore them and find what secrets, if +any, lay within their keeping. Then he reined in his broncho and +forced his mind back to Paddy's conversation, still upon the deeds +of the kilted heroes of the Black Watch. + +"And they do say," he was observing; "that Wauchope was light in his +mind--fey, them piping, petticoated Scotchmen calls it--the night +before his death. Now that's something that's beyond my thinking. No +dead man ever knows he's going to die. Witness the last words of +most of 'em! They make up their death-bed speeches, and then they +turn thrifty and save up the speeches till next time. Little Canuck +dear, what would you say, if you was hit?" + +Weldon laughed shortly. + +"I should probably say 'Thank God,'" he answered. + +Paddy crossed himself. + +"And might heaven forgive you then, little one!" he said gravely. +"The Lord and the Holy Virgin may send the bullets to kill you, +unless it's from the Boers who is guided by the Father of Lies; but +it's small thanks in return they will be asking. Take the benefits +of Providence with a shout of thanksgiving; but swallow hard and +keep a stiff upper lip, when it smacks you over the head with a +shillalegh." Then, of a sudden, he bent over in the saddle once more +and rested his hand on Weldon's fingers which lay on the broncho's +neck. "And, if I mistake not, little one, it is what you have been +doing, these late days, so forgive me teaching you a lesson you've +already learned by heart." + +Two nights before this, Carew's letter to Alice had ended with the +outcry,-- + +"For God's sake, how long is this going to last?" + +And now the end was almost in sight. Early the next day, there had +come a call for remounts for a column halted on the veldt near +Reitz, and Weldon, with a score of others from his squadron, had +been sent out with the mounts to join the column for the trek to the +southward. As a matter of course, Weldon had asked that the score +might include Paddy and Carew; and now, with them at his side, he +was at the head of the column which trailed away far towards the +southward, twelve hundred poorly mounted men riding in leisurely +fashion towards Harrismith and the chance of rounding up an +occasional Boer. + +Dusk of the second day had brought the hills on the sky-line close +to their eyes, and had sharpened the ragged peaks into threatening +crests of bare, black rock. Already the hills were but three miles +distant, and the hour for halt almost at hand, when scouts came +flying back to the column, breathless with haste and with the +consciousness of tidings to impart. The colonel received the tidings +with outward calm. + +"A laager of fifteen hundred Boers? And a mile and a half to the +south of us? We must attack." His eyes swept the faces of his men. +"Trooper Weldon?" + +At the word, Weldon rode forward and saluted. + +"That highest hill is the key to the position. It is the one we must +hold. Can you and your men ride around to the west of the laager, +get that hill and hold it at all costs until I can send +reinforcements to you? The reinforcements will start as soon as you +reach the top of the hill. Keep out of sight, while you can. Then +rush it. You understand?" + +Weldon nodded; then, his head erect, his eyes flashing, he saluted +for a second time and, with his men at his heels, dashed off into +the thickening dusk. + +Like foothills beside a mountain range, so the veldt before him was +already broken and crumpled into a series of irregular ridges, +opening in their midst to form a tiny plain where the Boer laager +lay spread out before them. The dusk of the plain was dotted with +scattered camp fires; but, beyond the ridges, it lay heavy, and in +that heaviness Weldon placed his trust. For two thirds of his whole +distance, he could keep below a ridge to the westward of the laager. +The final third lay full in view of the enemy, full up the +increasing steepness of the mountain side, where, horses failing, it +would be necessary to creep by stealth and upon the hands and knees. +And, where the shelter ended, there lay before them a short defile +between walls of naked rock, and the defile was narrow. + +Half the way to the defile was already accomplished when Weldon +heard, from the crest of the ridge above him, the double crack of a +Mauser rifle, and then the sound of scurrying, unshod feet. He shut +his teeth, and his chin rose a bit higher. "A picket! And now the +brute has run in to tell tales," he said shortly. "Quick, men, it's +a race between us now." + +Answering to the touch of the spur, the gray broncho went leaping +forward, with Paddy's horse neck and neck at her side. From beyond +the ridge, the trio of guns could be heard, barking ceaselessly, +while their shells dropped thick into the laager, scarcely eight +hundred yards away. And now the defile, short, but narrow, was close +at hand. + +Ka-paw! Ka-paw! + +From the mouth of the tiny pass, a rain of bullets swept down upon +them. A horse dropped, shot through the knee; another, hit in the +neck, bolted, threw its wounded rider and then, mad with pain, +hurled itself straight into the ranks of the enemy. A second shot, +almost at arm's length, threw it to the earth; but not until it had +done its work. The half-broken Boer ponies, fat from much feeding +and totally unaccustomed to this species of missile, swerved at its +approach and destroyed the aim of the second volley, which was +answered by a fire that sent a full quarter of the twoscore Boers +sprawling heavily groundward. + +A scant ten minutes sufficed for the rest. Five troopers lay +helpless on the dusty soil. Five dead Boers blocked the trail at the +entrance of the narrow pass. It was a drawn game; but the end was +not yet. From beyond the ridge, Weldon could hear the guns still +pounding ceaselessly. He knew that, half a mile in the rear, his +colonel was watching for him to come to the crest of the hill; that, +in a sense, the whole game was waiting upon his moves. Whirling +himself about, he gave a short, sharp order. Scarcely a moment +later, he was astonished to see the Boers in the pass giving way +before the mad rush of his paltry fifteen men. The narrow pass was +his own. + +Beyond the pass were more ridges, some parallel with his course, +some crossing it. Far to the eastward, he could see a moving spot, +black even in the increasing darkness of the night. Leaving Piggie +to pick her own way along the rocky ridge, he rose in his stirrups, +shaded his eyes with his hands and peered anxiously towards the +spot. At last his straining eyes could make out eight Boer horsemen, +riding furiously towards the peak which he was in honor bound to +hold. And their course was the chord of the arc of his own circle. +He dropped back to the saddle where he bent low, yielding his whole +body to the flying body of his horse. + +The crest was sharp. To the east, its approach was more easy; but on +the west it offered a wall of blank, black rock. The fat Boer ponies +were still at some distance from the eastern slope, when Weldon +flung himself from his panting broncho. Carew protested, as they +told off by fours and he was left, the third man, with Paddy's +mount, the gray broncho and a huge brown Argentine horse on his +hands. + +"Sorry, old man!" Weldon said briefly. "It's luck, and dead against +you. Still, it may save Miss Mellen a bad half-hour. Look out for +Piggie. She deserves it." And, turning, he led the way up the wall +of rock, with thirteen men, breathless, grim and eager, scrambling +at his heels. + +For moments, it seemed to him that Fate was idly tossing the dice to +and fro, before allowing herself to make the final, decisive cast. +From the farther side of the hill, he heard a sudden terrified snort +from one of the Boer ponies, then the thud of feet, as they charged +up the approaches of the long slope. From behind him, there arose a +groan, as one of the men, missing his foothold in the deepening +dusk, crashed back against the loose rocks at the bottom of the +hill. Then a shot and a whinnying moan told him that Carew and his +three comrades had edged around the base of the hill into range of +the enemy above them. The man might be wounded, too, as well as the +mount. Seven Boers, and they were thirteen in all. The cast was all +for-- + +A dash of light! A rattle of firing! Three of his men dropped +backwards. The other ten looked up to face a second flash from the +summit. Only eight heard the answering echoes which came rolling +back to them from the encircling hills. Then Paddy's voice came in +his ears, low, but as unconcerned as ever. + +"Remember the fellow who was rejected on account of his teeth, +little Canuck? 'Faith,' he said; 'it's shooting the damned Boers I +want to be, not eating them.' But, by the holy Virgin Mary, in +another ten minutes we'll be shaking 'em between our teeth." + +The next flash but one showed only five men on the steep rocky wall; +but those five men were close to the summit. Once on the top, their +rifles could come into play. It was maddening to be picked off, like +stuffed crows resting on a tree branch; maddening to listen to the +low sounds from beneath which told them that some one of their +comrades was facing the end of his fight. Then, just as they reached +the summit, one of their five dropped, with a bullet shattering the +bone of his ankle. + +"Go on, boys! You'll get there," he said, as the next in line dashed +past him. "The hill is Weldon's. Mind you hold it for him. The devil +is in him, and he's bound to win." + +On top of the hill, six Boers were huddled in the scant shelter of a +few low, scattered rocks tufted with a bunch of brush whose bleached +stalks marked the darkness with a pale line of range for their fire. +The next volley went astray. It was answered by the crack of Paddy's +rifle. Paddy's chuckle followed close on the crack. "I rolled him +over like a sausage in the hot fat," he commented, as he took a +second aim. "Here goes for another, and may his bed in heaven have a +valance to hide his sins!" A second Boer vanished behind the rocks. + +Four Boers in shelter, four Britons in the open; and, on the plain +beneath, twenty-seven hundred men were waiting to see the outcome of +the game. + +The tension of the eight men increased. It rendered their aim +unsteady. Under its influence, seven men fell to wasting their +ammunition. The eighth was Paddy. Firing rarely, his rare bullets +told. Now a finger was shattered, now an ear was grazed. + +"I'm not doing much killing; but, faith, I'm warming 'em up a bit," +he said, as he halted to cool his rifle. "It's keeping the ball a- +rolling, and them busy. Else, belike they'd find Satan filling the +idle hands of them with bad deeds. Little Canuck dear, this is hot +work for a boy." + +Weldon nodded. His hat had been lost in the scramble up the hill, +his putties were dragged into heaps of khaki about his knees, the +shoulder of his coat was torn by a passing bullet and a scarlet +trickle lined his cheek; but his face was alert and eager, his lips +parted in a half-smile which brought back to Paddy's mind a dim +picture of the boyish trooper he had known and loved at Piquetberg +Road. Then another man in khaki dropped at their feet. The lines of +Weldon's mouth straightened. + +"No go," he said briefly. "We must charge. It's our only chance." + +Paddy took one last, hasty shot. Then, gripping his rifle, he turned +to Weldon. + +"True, little Canuck," he answered loyally. "Go on, and be sure +Paddy will follow you to the other edge of the grave!" + +He spoke truthfully. The reinforcements came rushing up the eastern +slope of the hill, to find their pathway encumbered with bearded men +in frock-coats and bandoliers. On top of the crest, surrounded by +the wounded and the dying, sat a single man in khaki, the light of +victory in his gleaming eyes, and Paddy's lifeless body clasped in +his weary arms. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + + +"Yes," Carew said meditatively; "I wish there had been glory enough +to go around. As long as there wasn't, though, I am glad it was +fated to fall to your share." + +Weldon hurled a little black stone at a great black rock. + +"Not so much glory, after all." + +Carew raised his eyes and apostrophized the dark gray clouds rushing +across the paler gray arch of the sky. + +"Just listen to the man! What can he be wanting? 'Not so much +glory!' And he recommended for a V. C.!" + +Weldon shook his head. + +"What does it profit a man," he paraphrased; "if he gain the V. C. +and lose one of his best friends? Besides, I didn't gain it; it was +fated. Paddy was as brave as I, and so were half a dozen more of +them. It was only chance that brought me through the bullets." + +"Poor Paddy!" Carew's tone was full of thoughtful regret. + +"Not poor at all. He had the end we all are wishing for. He died +with his boots on, and fighting pluckily for a forlorn hope. We +can't mourn a man that we envy." + +Half way to the distant sky-line, the horses of the squadron were +grazing peacefully over the stubbly grass. The corporal and the +third of the troopers appointed to guard them were far away towards +the crest of a ridge to the westward, and Carew and Weldon were +alone. Carew sat silent for a moment, his eyes on the scattered +groups of horses. Then he turned and looked directly at his friend. + +"Perhaps," he assented. "I was sorry to be out of the scrimmage. It +took all my grit to obey you, old man; but it was an order. Now it +is over--" + +"Well?" Weldon prompted him. + +"Now it is over, I am less sorry than I was. The fact is, the future +holds a good deal for us." + +"For you, perhaps." + +"For you, too. The whole future of a man doesn't go to wreck in an +hour. There are other crises later on, and some of them are bound to +come out well. Save yourself for those, Weldon. There is no especial +use in throwing yourself away." + +"I'm not. But, when the order comes, I must obey it," Weldon said +gloomily. + +"It depends something on the order; but it depends a good sight more +on the way you obey it. When a man comes into collision with a +bulldog, it's generally wise to grapple with him back of his teeth; +else, you may lose a thumb or two. It's the same way with your +orders here. Because you don't funk, there is no reason you should +flirt with an early death." + +"But I don't." + +"What about now?" + +"What do you mean?" + +"That you ought to be in hospital." + +Weldon threw back his head and laughed, but mirthlessly. + +"Why, then?" + +Without speaking, Carew took out his pipe, filled it and began +fumbling in his pocket. + +"Have you a match?" he asked. + +Weldon nodded, produced the match, lighted it and held it to the +extended pipe. Carew's eyes, drooped to the bowl, watched the bit of +flame. + +"Do you call that a steady hand?" he asked then. "Man, you're ill, I +tell you. Your face is hot and your hands are cold, and your nerves +are worn to shoestrings, frayed shoestrings at that. If you keep on, +you'll be down flatter than you like. You ought to have stopped four +weeks ago." + +Weldon crossed his arms at the nape of his neck and lay back at his +ease on the ground. + +"Then what would have become of my V. C.?" he queried, with languid +indifference. + +"But I thought you claimed not to care for your V. C." + +"I don't. My friends may, however." "As a legacy? I think your +friends may possibly choose you to the V. C." + +"Foolish of them," Weldon commented. "Still, 'If we could choose the +time, and choose aright, 'T were best to die, our honor at the +height.' I learned that when I was a small boy; but I've only just +found out what it means." + +With scoffing lips, but eyes full of unspoken love, Carew turned on +his friend. + +"Don't dodder, Weldon," he counselled him. "That's canting drivvle, +made to console the unsuccessful. No man knows when he has reached +his high-water mark. Yours may have come on the day you licked +Stevie Ballard for gilding the tailless cat; it may not come till +you are ninety." + +"No." The syllable was quiet, deliberate. Then Weldon roused himself +and sat up to speak with sudden energy. "Promise me this, Carew, +that while the matter is hanging fire, you won't mention this V. C. +business to any one." + +Carew stared at him in unmixed surprise. + +"What's the matter now?" he asked blankly. + +"Nothing, only that I want you to promise." + +"Not to--" + +"Not to a living soul." + +"Why? What's the use?" + +"No use, but my wish. If it comes off, let it be as a joyous +surprise. If it misses fire, as it quite well may, then there'll be +no harm done. In either case, it is best to keep still. My own +notion is that I'll not get it. As a rule, one doesn't get the V. C. +for shinning up the side of a hill, no matter how steep it is." + +Carew made no attempt to discuss the chances. Instead, he merely +asked,-- + +"Mayn't I tell Miss Mellen?" + +Weldon shook his head. It was exactly to prevent the inevitable +consequences of Alice Mellen's knowing the story that he was seeking +to extort the promise from Carew. To protect his motive, however, he +took a sudden resolution. + +"I shall not even tell my mother," he answered, with slow emphasis. + +Carew raised his brows. + +"Then I suppose that ties my tongue. I am sorry. What's the use of +being so confoundedly modest, Weldon?" + +"Do you promise?" + +"I suppose I must." + +"On your honor?" + +"On my honor." + +Weldon stretched himself out at full length once more. + +"So be it. Give me a light. You took my last match," he said as +unconcernedly as if they had merely been talking of the weather. + +Indeed, the weather might well have been the subject of their talk. +The earth was baked until it cracked beneath the parching sun and +wind. There had been no rain for weeks; but, to-day, the raw wind +sent the lead-colored clouds flying over the sky, and the lead- +colored clouds were heavy with rain. All the morning and till mid- +afternoon, the column had been camping not far away, while their +weary, hungry mounts had been turned out on the veldt to graze. For +men and mounts, the halt was needed. + +The fight about the laager had been no easy victory. Twelve hundred +half-starved Britons are no match for fifteen hundred Boers fat with +easy living. Weldon's hold on the crest had decided the game; but +the game had not played itself out without wounds for some and utter +weariness for all. War mad, yet half-dazed in all other respects, +Weldon had watched the reinforcements come swarming up the hill to +his relief, had heard their cheers mingling themselves with the +sound of his name. Then, listless, but with his arm still about +Paddy's shoulders, he had seen the fight move to its destined +finish. He came down from the hilltop, feeling that something had +taken yet one more turn in the evertightening coil of his brain. For +one instant, as they were laying Paddy into the narrow grave scooped +out of the veldt, the coil relaxed. Then, as the lumps of earth +closed over his plucky, loyal little comrade, it tightened again and +pressed on him more closely than ever. + +And that was a week ago; and the week between had been one long trek +in search of errant Boers. Weldon still rode in the front of the +column. He had been ordered into hospital; but, bracing himself, he +had looked the doctor steadily between the eyes and had refused to +obey. The hospital was not for him--as yet. "By Jove!" Carew was +remarking deliberately. "Look at the horses!" + +Noses in air, tails lashing and eyes staring wildly, the frightened +groups had swept together and were rushing down upon them in one mad +stampede. Straight towards the two troopers they came dashing along, +swerved slightly and went sweeping past them, wrapped in a thick +column of dust which parted, just as the horde rushed by, before the +fierce impact of the breaking storm. From zenith to horizon, the +leaden sky was marked with wavering lines of golden fire; but the +shock of the thunder was outborne by the clash of falling hail. Half +a mile away, the tents were riddled by the egg-sized lumps of ice; +and, out on the open veldt, Carew threw himself on the earth, face +downward, and buried his head in his sheltering arms. But Weldon +staggered to his feet. In the thick of the flying troop of horses, +he had seen the little gray broncho, and now, before she swept on +out of hearing, he turned his back to the gale and gave a high, +shrill whistle. It was months, now, since Piggie had learned that +call. Again and again she had come trotting up to him, to rub her +muzzle against his neck in token that she had heard and understood. +There was scant chance that the call would be carried to her by the +boisterous wind, scanter chance still that, hearing it now in that +mad rout, she would heed. Nevertheless, Weldon took the chance. +Obviously stampeded by the enemy, the missing horses would leave the +column powerless to repel the attack which was imminent. If Piggie +could be recalled, there was still a chance to regain the other +mounts. Yet, even while he was weighing all the chances, he smiled +to himself as he recalled the ineffectual little whistle that had +gone out on the whistling wind. The chance was gone. Like Carew, he +would lie down and seek what shelter he could get from the earth and +from his own clasping arms. + +The hail, falling thickly, shut down about the troop of horses and +took them from his sight. If his eyes could have followed them, he +would have seen one little gray head toss itself upward from the +heart of the throng, one sturdy little gray back move more and more +slowly, turn slightly, then weave its patient way in and out between +its frightened companions until, free from the press of the crowd, +it stood alone on the hail-lashed plain. Ten minutes later, Weldon +felt a soft, wet muzzle poking its way between his tight-locked +arms. The rest was simple. It amounted to riding back to the column +to give warning of the enemy who rode close in the rear, to +summoning Kruger Bobs and The Nig, and then, without stopping for a +saddle, to go galloping away to the sky-line to round up the +stampeded herd. The first dash of hail over, the rain fell fast upon +them; but, above its roar, they could hear the steady firing of the +pom pom behind them and the crackle of musketry mingled with the +heavier fire. + +Four o'clock had brought the stampede and the storm. Seven o'clock +brought Weldon and Kruger Bobs, drenched to the skin, back into a +demoralized camp. Nine o'clock found Weldon still in the saddle, his +teeth chattering, his brown cheeks ablaze and his eyes hot with +fever, while he waited for the pitching of his tattered tent. Then, +even before its soggy, torn folds were stretched and pegged into +position, he turned and rode off in search of a doctor. + +"Sorry," he said briefly; "but I think I've a touch of fever. Can +you put me to bed somewhere?" + +The next morning, he greeted Kruger Bobs by the name of a girl +cousin who had died, ten years before. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + + +For two weeks, the fever held Weldon in its grip. For two weeks, he +was prostrate, first with the halting column, then at the base +hospital at Kroonstad. The fever was never very high, nor was it +intermittent. It merely hung about him and ate away his strength. +For the time being, he was content to lie quiet and stare up at the +electric lights scattered through the tent and wonder about Ethel. +Now and then some sight in the hospital set him to thinking about +the Captain, wondering if he were happy in his new life of rest and +peace, he who had so often been in the thick of the fiercest fight. +Or he thought of Paddy, brave, merry little Irishman who, fighting +like an angry wolf, had died with a joke still hanging on his lips. +Then his mind went back again to Ethel. + +In vain they urged him to sleep; in vain they gave him bromides. The +body was at rest; but the wheels of the brain whirred as busily as +ever, and as logically. No hint of delirium mingled with his thought +processes. It might have saved something if there had. + +Then, one day, Weldon sat up for an hour. The next day, he was put +into his clothes and, three days later, supported on the strong arm +of Kruger Bobs, he crawled into a hospital train bound for Cape +Town. It was an order, and he obeyed. Nevertheless, he shrank from +the very mention of Cape Town. It had been the core of his universe; +but now the core had gone bad. But his time of service had expired. +Red tape demanded that he receive the papers for his discharge from +the Cape Town citadel. That done, he would take the first outgoing +steamer for London. Afterwards, he would leave his life in the hands +of Fate. He took no note of the fact that Fate might step into the +game earlier than he then foresaw. + +For full seven hundred miles, the train lumbered on to the +southward. It was tedious, exhausting; yet Weldon found a certain +interest in the jar of the rolling wheels to which he fitted the +measure of his whirring thoughts. As long as the rhythm of the +wheels lasted, his thoughts slowed down to meet their time. When the +train halted, his thoughts dashed off again; but they resumed their +slower course as soon as the wheels began once more. He took no note +of the country about him, as they passed from veldt to karroo, from +karroo to the coast plateau, and from the coast plateau down across +the Cape Flats, sparsely covered with pipe grass and acacias. Then, +as Table Mountain and the Devil's Peak lifted themselves on his +right hand, he knew that Cape Town was near, and he braced himself +to go through what was before him. + +Kruger Bobs eyed him anxiously. + +"Boss sick," he announced for the dozenth time, as the train drew in +at the Adderley Street station. "Boss berry sick mans. Boss go hotel +soon." + +But Weldon shook his head. Even now, rest had scant space in his +plans, least of all, rest in Cape Town. + +"I can do it," he asserted resolutely. "Steady me till I get +started, Kruger Bobs. Then I shall astonish you by my agility." + +"Boss go hotel," Kruger Bobs muttered in low-voiced mutiny. "Boss +too sick to trek." + +"No fear. Did you ever know me to give out, when there was something +still to be done, Kruger Bobs?" + +"What Boss do?" + +"My discharge. My banker. My passage home." + +The arm of Kruger Bobs tightened about the bony figure of his +master, but the pressure of his strong arm was only gentle and +reassuring, and the great, white-ringed eyes glittered wet. This was +not the boy master to whom Kruger Bobs had sworn allegiance. This +was an older man, and weak withal. But the weaker grew the master, +the stronger grew the loyal, loving allegiance of the man. + +After the wide, deserted stretches of open veldt, the roar of +Adderley Street seemed to Weldon like the maddening tumult of +Piccadilly. The noise stunned him; the hurrying crowd filled him +with terror. Even inside the cab, he still clung to the arm of the +faithful Kruger Bobs. Still clinging to that faithful arm, he came +out from the citadel, no longer Trooper Weldon, but Mr. Harvard +Weldon once more, honorably discharged from the South African Light +Horse. Kruger Bobs was invisible behind the spreading limits of his +smile; but Weldon had scarcely heeded the words which had been +addressed to him. All at once, like a watch about to run down, the +wheels of his brain were moving slowly and ever more slowly. His +whole resolution now centered in keeping them in motion long enough +to go to his banker and to the office of the steamship company. Once +on the steamer and sliding out across Table Bay, he could leave the +rest to the ship's doctor and to Fate. + +Even in the multitude of strangers who had passed through Cape Town, +in those latter months, he was remembered at the bank and greeted +with a word of congratulation on his record in the field. At the +word, a man beside him, hearing, turned to look, looked again, and +then held out his hand. It was the father of Ethel Dent. + +That night, the Dents dined alone. Over the roast, Mr. Dent looked +up suddenly. + +"Whom do you think I saw, to-day, Ethel?" + +"Who now?" she asked, smiling. "You can't expect me to guess, when +you are constantly running up against the most impossible people." +"Not this time. It was quite possible; but it gave me a shock. It +was Mr. Weldon." + +The smile died from her lips. Nevertheless, she asked, with a forced +lightness,-- + +"What shocked you?" + +"His looks. He was ghastly, thin to a shadow and burning up with +fever. I was in the bank, and I heard some one speak his name; but I +had to look at him for a second time, before I could recognize him. +The man is a wreck. He looked sixty years old, as he went crawling +off, on the arm of his Kaffir boy. I'm sorry. I always liked +Weldon." + +A bit of bread lay by Ethel's plate. For an instant, her finger tips +vanished inside its yielding surface. Then she looked up. + +"Too bad! He was a good fellow," she said quietly. Then she lifted +her hand to her throat. "Dear me! Have I lost my diamond pin?" she +added hastily. "I was sure I put it on. Please excuse me, while I +see if I left it in my room." And she ran swiftly out of the room. + +Mrs. Dent broke the pause. + +"Where was Mr. Weldon going?" + +"To his hotel. I came out, just as they drove away, and I heard the +boy give the order to the driver." + +"Which hotel was it?" + +"I--Really, I don't remember. He used to go to the Grand." + +"He seemed ill?" + +"He seemed--" For an instant, Mr. Dent held the word in suspension. +Then he let it drop with a slow quietness which added tenfold to its +weight--"dead." + +His wife's gentle eyes clouded. + +"I am sorry. I liked the boy. He was good to me." + +"I had thought Ethel liked him, too," her husband added a little +inconsequently. + +"So she did in a way. But there have been so many others." The +mother sighed slightly. In her young days, there had been but one. +Now, remembering that one and watching him in the present, she found +it hard to comprehend Ethel's free-handed distribution of social +favors among so great a throng of admirers. There had always been +many; now, since her recent return from Johannesburg, the many had +become a multitude, and each of the multitude could show proof of +her liking. But Mrs. Dent recurred to the fact of Weldon's illness. + +"Poor boy! Fancy being really ill, so far from home and in a hotel!" +she added slowly. + +"It is one of the risks of a soldier," her husband reminded her. + +"Yes, and the soldiers fought for us. Where would your mines have +been without them?" she suggested in return. "I really wish you +would telephone to the hotel and find out something more definite +about him." + +Her husband looked covetously at the entree, just appearing in +sight. + +"Now?" he asked. + +She ignored the mockery of his tone. + +"Yes, please," she assented quietly. "It will only take you a +minute." + +It took him ten. When he came back into the room, his hat was in his +hand. + +"I think I will go over to the Grand for a minute," he explained. "I +don't quite like what I hear." + +"What did you hear?" + +In the dim upper hallway, a girlish figure leaned far over the +railing and strained her ears for the reply. Then, noiselessly, the +door of her room shut again behind her. + +"They tell me," Mr. Dent was saying; "that Weldon is there, +unconscious in his room. The boy brought him into the house in his +arms, and they have sent for Dr. Wright. It is a bad case of +enteric, mixed with some trouble with the brain. He appears to be +suffering from nervous shock, they say, increased by a long strain +of anxiety." + +Half an hour later, he was called from Weldon's room to speak to his +wife at the telephone. + +"Yes," he answered her. "It is as bad as I heard, as bad as it can +be. You think so? Are you strong enough? Sure? Hold the wire, then, +till I ask the doctor." The interval was short; and he went on +again, "The doctor says he can be moved now, but not later. It may +be a matter of weeks. How soon can you be ready? Very well. Will you +be sure to save yourself all you can? In an hour, then. And the +doctor will have a nurse waiting there? And can you put the boy into +some corner? He would be frantic, if we tried to leave him behind. +Very well. Yes." And the telephone rang off. + +It was midnight before the Dent household was fully reconstructed. +Upstairs in the great eastern front room, a white-capped nurse was +bending above the unconscious man in the bed; downstairs in the +kitchen, the tears of Kruger Bobs were mingling with the cold roast +beef on the table before him. The doctor had just gone away, and in +the room underneath the sickroom, Mr. Dent and his wife were quietly +laying plans to meet the needs of the changed routine which had +fallen upon their home. He looked up, as Ethel came slowly into the +room. + +"By the way, Ethel, I forgot to ask you before; but did you find +your pin?" + +She looked at him wonderingly. Her face was pale and drawn; but her +eyes were shining like the gems she had professed to miss. + +"What pin do you mean?" she asked blankly. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + + +"Don't wait any longer, Carew. Really, it's not worth while." + +"Too late for us to part company now," Carew answered serenely. + +"I know. You've stood by me like a good fellow; but it will be some +time yet before I can sail. And you know you are in a hurry to get +away." + +"Don't be too sure of that," Carew advised him. "All my good things +aren't at one end of the world." + +Weldon's lips curled into the ghost of his old smile. + +"Then take one of them along with you," he suggested. + +Elbows on knees and chin on fists joined knuckle to knuckle, Carew +turned and smiled blandly down at the face on the pillow. + +"Weldon, for a man who has been off his head for a month, you do +have singularly wise ideas. But do you suppose she'd go?" + +"Which?" + +"Miss Mellen, of course. It's a question of ages. Young Mahomet is +easier to move than the everlasting hills." + +"Meaning your mother? She would thank you." "She will thank me, when +she sees Alice," Carew responded hopefully. "But, honor bright, do +you suppose Miss Mellen would go back with me?" + +"I thought she promised." + +"Yes, but now," Carew persisted, with the eagerness of a boy. "Right +off, next month." + +"There's only one way to tell; ask her," Weldon answered. "If she is +the girl I think she is, she will say yes." + +"You do like her; don't you, Weldon?" The eagerness was still in his +tone. + +"Intensely," Weldon replied quietly. "I have seen few women I have +liked as well." + +"What larks we'll be having, this time next year, talking it all +over together," Carew said, in a sudden, thoughtful burst of +prophecy. "By the time we get home, we shall forget the blood and +the dog-biscuit, and only remember the skittles and beer. If only--" + +"What?" Weldon looked up at him without flinching. + +Carew did flinch, however. + +"Nothing," he said hastily. "One is never quite content, you know." + +Weldon drew a deep, slow breath. + +"No," he echoed. "One is never quite content." + +Carew crossed his legs, as he settled back in his chair. + +"Mayhap. Some of us ought to be, though." + +"Yes. You're a lucky fellow, Carew." + +"So are you. The trouble is, one never knows when he is well off." + +"But we all know when we aren't," Weldon replied succinctly. + +Carew's glance was expressive, as it roved about the luxurious room, +with the bed drawn up near the window which looked out, between the +branches of an ancient oak tree, on the blue waters of Table Bay and +on the fringe of shipping by the Docks far to the eastward. Faintly +from the room below came the sound of a piano and of a hushed +girlish voice singing softly to itself. + +"It all depends on one's point of view," Carew said, after an +interval. "I am living in a seven-by-nine room in a hotel, and Miss +Mellen is seventy-two miles and three quarters away. Weldon, you are +a lucky dog, if you did but know it." + +Weldon shut his teeth for a moment. Then he said quietly,-- + +"Carew, it is five weeks that I have been in this house. Mr. Dent +and dear little Mother Dent have been angel-good to me. Miss Dent--" +He hesitated. + +"Has been an archangel?" Carew supplemented calmly. + +"Has never once come into my sight." + +Deliberately, forcefully, the next words dropped from Carew's +tongue. "The--devil--she--hasn't!" + +"No." + +Then Weldon waited for Carew to speak; but Carew merely sat and +stared at his friend in speechless stupefaction. + +"Oh, Lord!" he blurted out at last. "Then you haven't made it up?" + +"There was nothing to make up," Weldon said drearily. + +Again Carew's elbows came down on his knees with a bump. + +"There was, too!" he contradicted, with an explosiveness which +irresistibly reminded Weldon of their kindergarten days. + +"What makes you think so?" + +"I don't think. I know." + +"How do you know?" Weldon asked listlessly. + +"Alice Mellen told me," Carew replied conclusively. + +"Told you what?" + +"That Cooee Dent is in love with you." + +From his superior knowledge, Weldon stared disdainfully up at him. + +"Then there is one thing that Alice Mellen doesn't know." + +"She does, then. She told me about it, when you went off on your +feed, up at Lindley," Carew explained hurriedly. "I was worried +about you, and she was worried about Miss Dent, and we compared +notes. You hadn't said a word of any kind; we could only guess at +things, so we wrote to each other about it. She told me then about +Miss Dent's dashing up to Johannesburg after Vlaakfontein." + +"She went to see her cousin." + +"She also went to see you." + +Carew's emphatic pause was broken by the coming of the nurse, who +bent over the bed, raising her brows inquiringly, as she laid two +fingers on Weldon's wrist. Carew took the obvious hint. + +"I hope I've not stopped too long," he said, as he rose. "It has +been good to see Mr. Weldon. May I come again?" + +The nurse was a true woman. Therefore she smiled back into his +happy, handsome face. + +"I think you may," she answered. "Mr. Weldon is tired now, but you +evidently have done him good." + +Carew meditated aloud, as he went away down the walk. + +"Out of every five women, three are cats," he observed tranquilly to +himself. "I've cornered the fourth. It remains to be seen whether +Weldon is cornered by the fifth, or only the third. Hasn't been to +see him! Little beast! But I'll bet any amount of gold money that +she has done endless messing for him on the sly." + +Carew's words showed that it is usually not the man in love with a +woman who is the shrewdest judge of the hidden recesses of that +woman's nature. The fact was, Ethel had slaved unceasingly, but +unseen, for the patient above stairs. See him she would not. Day +after day, she invented fresh excuses to ward off her mother's +suggestions of a call on the invalid; but also, day by day, she +invented fresh delicacies to tempt the appetite dulled by months of +army biscuit and bully beef. And, meanwhile, she was waiting. + +Rather to her surprise, no message came down to her from the +invalid's room. She had supposed as a matter of course that Weldon +would intuitively recognize the source of the dainties which reached +him anonymously. Man-fashion, however, he could see no reason that +his beef tea and his wine jelly should be the work of different +hands. He devoured them both, and reflected thankfully upon the +skill of the Kaffir cook. Mr. Dent had been scrupulously literal in +carrying out the commands laid upon him by his daughter. He had left +in Weldon's mind no doubt whatsoever about the truth of his +statement that Mrs. Dent alone had been responsible for the +invalid's present quarters. Weldon had lavished thanks upon Mrs. +Dent, and she had received them without demur, as her own lawful +property. Even now, he was at a loss whether his recovery was more +owing to Mrs. Dent or to the nurse. Each had given to him a large +share of her vitality. + +From a distance, he could follow Ethel's doings, could assure +himself that his presence was no apparent check upon her happiness. +Now it was the muffled whirr of the bell, followed by low voices +from the room beneath. Now it was the roll of the carriage, bearing +her away to dine or to dance, and leaving Weldon to lie and count +the minutes until she returned. Now it was her light footstep on the +stairs, or, but this was only at long intervals, her hushed voice in +the hallway outside his door. At first, he used to lie and hold his +breath, while he waited for her to open the door of his room. By +degrees, however, he ceased to expect her. And, as the expectation +died away, he chafed increasingly at the slowness of his recovery. +Anything to get out of that house! She treated him as he would have +scorned to treat an invalid dog who had taken refuge in his stable. + +All this came slowly. For two endless weeks, Weldon lay unconscious. +For two more endless weeks, he raved in delirium. Happily, his nurse +was a discreet woman. She discouraged the visits of Mrs. Dent and +her husband, offered the excuse that strange faces excited the +invalid, and only admitted them during his brief intervals of sleep. +Meanwhile, she used all her professional principles to keep herself +from trying to solve the problem before her eyes. Upstairs was a man +sick unto death, a man who raved ceaselessly of the daughter of the +house. Downstairs, the daughter of the house was going her +accustomed way, with never a question in regard to the man above. +What had happened? How, if anything had happened, how did he chance +to be in that home, with Mrs. Dent as his devoted and anxious slave? +Resolutely, she fell to studying her temperature charts. Her +specialty was fever, not heart disease. + +A week after the tide had turned, Carew had been allowed to spend a +short half-hour with the invalid. The next day, by advice of the +nurse, Mr. Dent telephoned to him to come again. Something, whether +in his personality or in his talk, had been of tonic power over +Weldon. It seemed wise to repeat the experiment. + +Carew came on the heels of his own voice through the telephone; and +his face was smiling broadly, as he went leaping up the stairs. +After all, it had not been in vain, his quixotic lingering in Cape +Town for a weary month after receiving his discharge. Weldon and he +had been good friends through thick and thin; it would have been +beastly to leave him. And now, after all these useless weeks, he +could at least do something to lighten the convalescence. Moreover, +Carew's pocket held three letters, received that very noon; one of +grudging approval from his son-sick mother, one of chaotic, but +heartfelt thanks from Mrs. Weldon, and the third one an affirmative +answer to a telegram he had sent to Alice Mellen, only the night +before. He went into Weldon's room, looking, as he felt, the +embodiment of happiness and health. + +He hailed Weldon from the threshold. Tidings like his could wait +during no interchange of mere conventional greetings. Weldon heard +him to the end, congratulated him, demanded the repetition of all +the details. Then, when Carew's excitement had quite spent itself, +Weldon drew a letter from underneath his pillow. + +"It came, this morning," he added laconically. + +Carew seized the letter and ran his eye down the page. Then his face +lighted. + +"Nunc dimittis!" he said piously. "It's sure to be yours! Have you +told Miss Dent?" + +"I've not seen Miss Dent." + +Carew's face fell. + +"Not yet? But you will. And then you will tell her?" + +Weldon's lips straightened into a thin line. He shook his head. + +"But she ought to know." + +"Why?" + +"It is her right." + +"Why?" Weldon asked again. + +"Because--it is. It might make some difference in--" + +Weldon stopped him abruptly. + +"It could make no difference, Carew. In facing the main question, +such things as that don't count. Even if they did, though," he rose +on his elbow and faced his friend steadily; "even if they did, I +would never consent to try to bribe a girl into loving me, by +telling her I had won the V. C. It will be time enough for Miss Dent +to hear of it, when it is given." + +"But you will be in England then," Carew objected practically. + +Weldon lay down again and drew the sheet upward till its shadow lay +across his lips. + +"What matter?" he answered slowly. "And, besides, Miss Dent isn't +the girl to be won in any such way as that. Hers is a love to be +given, not bought." + +Half an hour later, Carew met Ethel on the stairs. As he halted to +speak to her, he was shocked at the look in her face. The lips were +smiling; but the eyes were the eyes of a hunted animal. + +"So long since we have met!" he said, as he took her hand. "And so +much has happened." + +"Yes. I have been hoping to congratulate you," she answered. + +"It was a stunning letter you wrote me," he said boyishly. "I +suppose we are cousins now." + +Then there came a little pause. Before either of them quite realized +it, the pause had lengthened until it was hard to break. + +"I have been up to see the invalid," he blurted out at last. + +"How is he?" the girl inquired courteously. + +"Better." Then a sudden note of resentment crept into Carew's honest +voice. "He is counting the days now before he can be moved. He says +your mother has been wonderfully good to him." + +The girl stood aside to let Carew pass her by. + +"She is good to everybody," she assented quietly. "I hope Mr. Weldon +won't think of going away until he can be moved with perfect safety. +It is really no trouble to have him here, and the nurse is very +capable." + +And Carew bowed in agreement. Once outside the door, however, he +freed his mind, tersely and with vigor. + +"Damn the nurse!" he said to the oak tree, as he passed it. + + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX + + + "There's a true Heart in the West World, that is beating + still for me, + Ever praying in the twilight once again my face to see. + Oh, the World is good and gladsome, with its Love both + East and West, + But there's ever one love only that is still the First and Best." + +The low voice died away. A moment later, Ethel Dent pushed open one +of the long windows of the drawing-room and stepped out on the +veranda. The flower-boxes were filled with limp stalks, chilled by +the frost of the previous night; but the sun lay warm over the wide, +white steps, over the lawn and over the bay beyond. She stood for a +moment, staring thoughtfully out across the bay; then she moved on +to the western end of the veranda, looked up at Table Mountain with +its cloth of cloud, and then dropped down into one of the chairs +which still remained in the sunny corner. + +That corner held many memories for her. She had sought it now +unconsciously; yet, once there, she lingered, although for weeks +past she had been seeking to banish those memories from her life. +Why keep them? They belonged to a chapter that was dead and gone. +Better to seal its pages and never break the seal. Better never to +reread what had been written there. If she had been mistaken in +giving her love where it was not desired, not only should the world +never be aware of the fact; but she herself would ignore the +existence of that mistake. She had loved Weldon with all the energy +of her headstrong, girlish nature. She had supposed that he had +loved her in return. Instead of that, he had gone away and left her +without a word, just when her need for him was the greatest. No man +in his senses could have seen the agony of that last hour she had +spent with Captain Frazer, and failed to understand the pitiful, +appealing look she had cast upon him. Unable to escape the agony, +she had given this tacit call to Weldon to share it with her, to +understand, and to forgive. She had been sure she could trust him; +but it was evident that she had trusted him in vain. In the hour of +her supremest need, he had gone away and left her alone. No man who +cared for her could have forsaken her in such a crisis as that. Her +lips curved into a hard little smile, as she sat rocking to and fro +in the sunshine, and, going back over a past which she had rarely +allowed herself to reopen. + +And afterwards? Afterwards Fate had been all against her. It had +been easy to escape from her engagement at Johannesburg, +comparatively easy to shut the past experience into the inner places +of her mind, to close her lips with the show of a smile, and to +plunge into a whirl of social life which should leave her no time +for quiet thought. So long as she kept her secret to herself, it +mattered nothing to the girl that it was eating pitilessly at her +vitality, that it was ever hard and harder for her to keep up her +ceaseless round of gayety. + +And then, all at once, their home life had been invaded by the man +who was never absent from her thoughts. In a sense, she was glad of +the invasion. It proved to her, more surely than any words could +have done, that she had kept her secret well and beyond suspicion. +Had her mother gained any inkling of the true state of the case, +Harvard Weldon would never have been brought away from the room at +the Grand. For so much surety, Ethel Dent could rejoice with a +thankful heart. Nevertheless, as the days passed by, Weldon's +presence in the house increased the strain tenfold. Night after +night, Ethel had crept noiselessly from her room across the hallway +and crouched outside his door, listening for any sounds from within +which might tell her that all was well with the man whom she would +not see. Day after day, she forced her life to run along in its +usual grooves, going out of the house with a laugh on her lips and, +in her heart, the sickening dread of the tidings which might greet +her upon her return. Again and again, as she passed the door left +open during the nurse's temporary absence from the room, she put +forth all her strength to keep herself from stealing in, to look +just once on the unconscious face of the man who had made her +whole life. But she held herself in check, and never once yielded to +the temptation. Well she might hold herself in check. She realized +only too keenly that, once face to face with Weldon, she would have +to do over again all the weary work of those weeks of self- +repression. + +Then the stupor had given place to delirium; and, even in her room +and behind her closed door, she could hear the low, muttering voice. +After that, she crouched no more outside his room. It would have +been impossible for her to say just what it was that she dreaded to +hear. Nevertheless, she closed her ears as resolutely as she closed +her door; but, when she met the nurse on the stairs, she hurried +onward with her face turned away and her cheeks ablaze. + +And then in its turn the delirium had ended. From that time forward, +Ethel went out more constantly than ever. When she was in the house, +she started and grew red or pale at every unexpected step. Now, at +any hour, there might come a summons for her to go to the invalid's +room. She went over in detail every possible reply she could make to +every possible word which Weldon might say. She held herself ready +for any emergency. But the days dragged away, and no emergency had +come. + +And then, as it had chanced, she had been away from home, when +Weldon had finally left the house. It had been the fulfilment of an +old promise which had taken her to spend two days with a friend in +Newlands. She had had no notion that the time for Weldon's going +away was at hand. Neither, on the other hand, had Weldon any idea +that Ethel was absent from home. He had merely taken advantage of +the first day when the doctor had ceased to oppose his removal. It +had been to him a cruel disappointment that Mrs. Dent had stood +alone on the steps to watch his departure. + +That was three weeks before. Ethel had supposed that Weldon would +sail for home at once. He had supposed so, too, until all at once he +had found it impossible to turn his back upon Cape Town and all it +held. Deep down in his heart was the memory of Carew's words, +assuring him of the reason of Ethel's sudden journey to Johannesburg +after the fight at Vlaakfontein. The episode was now far away in the +past. It might chance, however, that something of the old mood might +linger in her mind. Carew had felt sure of her love for him. Perhaps +she had loved him once, before the Captain had won the first place +in her heart. Perhaps--He had grown dizzy and had grasped the edge +of the pillow to steady himself, the first time the idea had dawned +upon him--Perhaps, now that the Captain had gone beyond the reach of +human love, he might win her to care for himself once more. The +chance appeared to him to be wellnigh impossible; yet, while it +lingered in his mind, he could not force himself to go away from +Cape Town. + +The worst of his convalescence was ended, before he was allowed to +leave the Dents' home. He strained every nerve to hasten his full +recovery. The path of Ethel Dent was not parallel to the course of +any semi-invalid. If he were to meet her at all, it must be as a man +in full health. By degrees, the color came back to his face, his +lean figure lost something of its lankness, his tread grew firmer +and more alert. But the old shadow still lingered in his eyes; the +strained lines about his lips did not relax. Weldon's mental healing +kept no pace with his physical one. + +By degrees, too, his table littered itself with cards of invitation. +As yet, he felt himself too weak for any but the most informal +functions; and Carew, always at his elbow, assured him from his own +experience that informality, just then, was an unknown word in the +social vocabulary of Cape Town. Carew, bidden on all sides, was +dividing his time between his convalescent friend and the gayeties +of early winter. He dined and danced almost without ceasing; and, in +the intervals of his dining and dancing, he told over to Weldon all +the details of his social career. And these details largely +concerned themselves with Ethel Dent: how she looked, what she wore, +what she said, with whom she danced and with whom she sat it out. +And, as he listened, Weldon made up his mind that, for him, the time +for resting at home was ended. It was better, easier to go to see +for himself than it was to sit at home and imagine things, or to +hear about them, after they had happened. There was to be a +reception at the Citadel, next week. He would begin with that. + +One resolution led to the next. Only two days after he had +determined upon the reception, he ordered Kruger Bobs to saddle the +gray broncho and to attend him upon The Nig. Then, when the noon sun +lay warm over the city, he mounted and, with Kruger Bobs behind him, +he rode slowly down Adderley Street to the water front, and turned +eastward to the home of the Dents. + +The wide veranda and the great white pillars seemed like home to +him, in all truth. That house had been the scene of some of his best +hours, as of his worst ones, and his heart pounded madly against his +ribs as he caught sight of its familiar outlines. Then he drew in +his breath sharply and bore down hard in his stirrups, while his +face went white to the lips. From the western end of the veranda a +girlish figure had risen, halted for a moment with the sun beating +full upon her vivid hair; then, heedless of the distant riders, it +had turned and disappeared within the doorway. + +The maid's face brightened, as she met Weldon at the door. "But Mrs. +Dent is not at home," she said, with honest regret in her voice. +"She has gone out of town." + +Weldon controlled his own voice as best he might. + +"And Miss Dent?" he asked. + +However, the maid had just broken the Baden-Powell tea-cup. Its +fragments were still upon the floor, and she had no mind, just then, +to face her young mistress. + +"Miss Dent is not at home," she answered, with glib mendacity. And +then she wondered why it was that Weldon's pallor turned from white +to gray, as he went away down the steps. + +Nevertheless, he fulfilled his resolution of going to the reception +at the Citadel. For one reason, he had given his word to Carew. +Moreover, he felt that, for the honor of his manhood, he must accept +his fate like a man. Four months before that time, Ethel Dent had +stabbed him almost to the death. Now, with delicate precision, she +had struck him full across the face. The touch had hurt him far more +than the deeper wound had done; but, at least, she should never be +aware of it. To his mind, she had forfeited all right to the +knowledge. + +He dressed with careful precision. More than once he was forced to +sit down for a moment; more than once his fingers refused to do his +bidding and his hands dropped inertly at his side. However, Carew +found him waiting, hat in hand, and together they drove away to the +Citadel. + +Already, when they reached the door, the reception was nearing its +highest tide. The rooms were bright with uniforms and with trailing +gowns, gay with the hum of voices; and the lilt of a waltz came +softly to them from across the distance. As they halted on the +threshold, Weldon lifted his eyes and suddenly found them resting +full upon Ethel Dent. The girl was quite at the farther end of the +long room, the central figure of a little throng, and wholly +unconscious of their presence. Her back was towards Weldon. He could +only see the sweep of her shimmering gown, the heavy coils of yellow +hair and the curve of one rounding cheek; yet, even in that partial +view, he felt himself astounded at her vitality. It flashed until it +dazzled him, and the dazzle hurt. He bowed to the governor and +turned away into another room, striving, as he went, to account for +the sudden depression which had fallen upon him. He had not expected +to find Ethel Dent moping alone in a corner; neither had he looked +for a radiant alertness such as he had never seen in her before. +During the long weeks of his illness, his mental picture of her had +been colored by the sadness of their last meeting. Now the picture +was torn aside and a new one thrust into its place, and the new one +seemed garish to his weary nerves. + +"Weldon! Have you risen from the grave?" + +He turned sharply, to find himself face to face with the captain of +his former troop. + +"Merely from hospital," he answered. "I have been lying up for +repairs." + +The other man nodded. + +"I know; and thereby adding to the glamour which surrounds a man +elect for the V. C. Are you all right again?" + +Weldon's voice hardened to match the strain he was putting upon his +control. + +"Absolutely. I am sailing for home, next week." + +"And taking a farewell view of the place, before you go? Then come +to meet the prettiest girl in Cape Town." + +For an instant, Weldon hesitated. Then, reassured by the direction +taken by his guide, he followed, while the strains of the waltz came +ever more distinctly to his ears. His companion craned his neck to +reconnoitre. + +"She is dancing now; but she will be through in a moment. There," he +added, as the music rose to a crashing finale; "that is over, and, +by George, here she is! Miss Dent, may I introduce another war-worn +veteran, Mr. Weldon?" + +The shock came so suddenly that neither of them had an opportunity +to prepare to resist it. It was Weldon who spoke first, however, and +his voice was level, for he was generous enough to take none of the +advantage which so plainly was all upon his side. + +"Miss Dent and I are old acquaintances," he said quietly. + +Fortunately the captain was garrulous. + +"Another proof of the smallness of the world," he said jovially. "In +time, I shall learn the futility of introductions. One is always +pointing out next-door neighbors to each other's notice. By the way, +Weldon, didn't you know Frazer rather well? I used to meet him at +your house so often, Miss Dent." + +Ethel's fingers shut upon the sticks of her fan. + +"Yes," she assented. "Captain Frazer was one of our best friends." + +All at once, the face of the young captain grew grave. + +"I remember now," he said quite slowly. "But his loss was a sorrow +to us all. His place can never be entirely filled." + +There came a momentary pause. Then, as the captain's broad shoulders +vanished in the heart of the crowd, Weldon turned and looked Ethel +squarely between the eyes. + +"Believe me, Miss Dent," he said simply; "this is none of my doing." + +She made no pretence of misunderstanding him. Instead of that, her +quiet voice was full of bitterness, as she gave brief answer,-- +"Quite obviously, Mr. Weldon." + +"Thank you for doing me that justice," he said, after an instant +when their meeting eyes flashed like meeting blades of steel. +"Stuart had no notion that he was making a mess of things." + +She faced him a little proudly. + +"I am unable to see what mess he can have made, Mr. Weldon. It is +always a pleasure to meet an old acquaintance." + +Few things could have hurt him more than the icy conventionality of +her words. All the gentler side of his nature was crying out for +mercy; but he smothered its cries and faced her bravely, praying the +while for some one to come to them and end the scene. The Ethel Dent +he had known in the old days had been a woman of flesh and blood; +this was a statue of marble, polished and beautiful, but cold +withal. He could only seek to meet her with equal coldness, then +make his escape to nurse his wounds unseen. Nevertheless, in spite +of his resolutions to the contrary, a sudden heat crept into his +answering words, + +"But I thought you had annulled the acquaintance." + +She looked up at him in mute surprise. Then, mustering her pride, +she forced herself to smile. + +"I?" she answered lightly. "Oh, no, I am only too proud to count a +V. C. among my friends." + +He waited until the last word had dropped from her lips, waited +until the silence had dropped over the last word. Then he faced her +yet once again. This time, there was determination in his eyes, +determination and a great, indomitable love. + +"Ethel," he said imperiously; "for God's sake, stop fencing with me, +and have it out. Remember it is now, or never." + +The color mounted swiftly across her face, then faded, and even to +her own ears her laugh failed to ring true. + +"I am sorry; but I fear it is impossible. Here comes Colonel +Andersen for his dance." + +Weldon faced about. + +"Colonel Andersen, Miss Dent is longing for an ice," he said, with a +sudden masterful quietness. "May I take a convalescent's privilege +and ask you to bring it to her?" Then he turned back to Ethel. +"Come," he bade her. + +"Where?" she protested; but she yielded to his stronger will and +followed him across the floor towards a deserted corner of the room. + +"Anywhere, where we can talk for a moment," he answered her, with +the same dominant quietness. Then, while they halted beside an open +window, he bent forward and laid his hand upon hers, as it rested +upon the sill. "Ethel," he added; "I am going home, next week. I may +never see South Africa again. Before I go--" + +Quietly she withdrew her hand. "Before you go, you will come to say +good by to my mother, I hope," she said, with a steadiness which +gave no hint of the tears behind her lowered lids. + +Impatiently he brushed her words aside. + +"That is for you to say. First of all, I must know one thing." + +Her nerve was failing fast; but she still held to her resolve that +he should gain no hint of her weakness. She drew back a step, as if +his vehemence terrified her, yet she dared not raise her eyes to +his. It was all she could do to hold her voice in subjection. + +"And what is that?" she asked. + +He waited for an instant, before he answered her question. Her next +words might contain all, or nothing. His lips shut to a narrow line; +then he straightened his shoulders. + +"Ethel," he said rapidly; "I have been in a good many fights; I've +found that it hurts more to be mangled than it does to be killed. +Speak out, then, and end this thing once for all. Was it final, what +you said to the Captain, that day?" + +She bit her lip; but her voice would not come, and she could only +give a little, dreary nod. Weldon watched her steadily for a moment; +then he turned to go away. + +For another moment, Ethel stared after him, heedless now of the +drops that were sliding down her cheeks. Then, of a sudden, she +found her voice. "Wait!" she said, as she stepped forward with a +swift gesture which was wholly imploring, wholly feminine. "It may +have been final; but finality is not always truth." + +He halted at her words. + +"And you mean?" + +"I mean," she answered him; "I mean that then, and now, and always, +I loved one man, and he--" she caught her breath; then she lifted +her head proudly; "was you. The rest was all a mistake; but I did +what I thought was best." + +Weldon bowed his head. + +"No matter now," he answered. + +Then, taking her hand, he led her back to the open window where they +stood together long, while, in the room beyond, an anxious colonel +threaded his way to and fro in the crowd, impatiently hunting the +partner in whose memory he had ceased to exist. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of On The Firing Line, by Ray & Fuller + diff --git a/old/frngl10.zip b/old/frngl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1cf155 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/frngl10.zip |