Under the Deodars

ple the energetic discharge of duty and the steady endurance of

Army Re

Hanna Wick' was posted as Second Lieutenant to the Tyneside Tail Twisters at Krab Bokhar, he became an officer and a gentleman, which is an enviable thing; an

r the good of the land, and doing his best to make two blades of grass grow where there was but one before. Of course, nobody knew anything about

he shoulder and said

swamped tennis-parties and tea-fights of the village, and, I daresay, had his joining-time been extended, would have fallen in love with severa

will tell you more about outfit than I can; but remember this. Stick to your Regiment, Bobby stick to your Regiment. You'll see men all round you going into the Staff Corps, and doing every possible sort of duty but regimental, and you may be tempted to follow suit. Now so long as y

ers held more inmates than were provided for by the Regulations, and the liberty-men of the ships fell foul of the drafts for India, and the battle

the comfort of fifty scornful females to attend to, had no time to feel home-sick till the Malabar reach

nd juicy subalterns who had all applied to enter the Staff Corps, and had asked them why the three stars should he, a colonel of the Line, command a dashed nursery for double-dashed bottle-suckers who put on condemned tin spurs and rode qualified mokes at the hiatused heads of forsaken Black Regiments. He was a rude m

p, bravest, most illustrious, and in all respects most desirable Regiment within the compass of the Seven Seas. He was taught the legends of the Mess Plate, from the great grinning Golden Gods that had come out of the Summer Palace in Pekin to the silver-mounted markhor-horn snuff-mull presented by the last C.O. [he who spake to the seven subalterns]. And every

at on the end of a chewed stick. Bobby did not kneel and worship them, because British subalterns are not constructed in that mann

and nothing but the Line as the tramp of two thousand one hundred and sixty sturdy ammunition boots attested? He would not have changed places with Deighton of the Horse Battery, whirling by in a pillar of cloud to a chorus of 'Strong right! Strong left!' or Hogan–Yale of the White Hu

the volleys; for he knew that he should live to hear that sound in action. The review ended in a glorious chase across the plain batteries thundering after cavalry to the huge disgust of the White Hussars,

the Captain of his Company, and to be instructed in the dark art and myst

g of it, but remember, Bobby, 't isn't the best drill, though drill is nearly everything, that hauls a Regiment throu

'I think he comes under the head of

a dashed dirty soldier, and his room corporal makes fun of his socks before kit

now?' said Bo

et not see that it's there. Dormer is being badgered out of his mind big as he is and he hasn't intellect enough to resent it. He's taken to quiet

can't run round coddl

soon show him that he was

me papers; Bobby reflected for a while a

Bobby asked with the air of one con

, who delighted in long words. 'A dirty soldier and 'e's unde

? What

mpany papers, and the Sergeant, who was sternly fond of Bobby, continued, ''E generally goes down there when 'e's got 'is skinful, beggin' your par

last paper and the

by to himself. Then aloud to Revere:

t at any minute he may flare up, brooding and sulking as he does. He resents any interest b

boat and go down the river from Thursday to Sunday, and

Revere, but his heart was ful

ver on Thursday morning the Private at the bow, the Subaltern at the helm. The P

rn, saluted, and said 'Beg y' pardon, si

Wick. 'Come and h

ening fell, Private Dormer bro

e next week twelve month, a-trailin' of my toes in

to purple, gold, and opal; and it was as though the lum

out of his blanket and gazed

is like a bloomin' gallantry-show!' For the rest of the day he was dumb,

een struggling with speech since noon. As the lines

, 'but would you would you mi

he shook accordingly. Dormer retu

Bobby. 'My aunt, but he's a filthy sort of animal! Have y

eeks later, 'he's doing his b

general scramble for Hill leave, and to hi

want,' said Revere t

he Colonel. 'Keep back that young skrim-shanker

y to Simla Pahar with a t

ta–Buldana? Ask him to dinne

!' said the matr

!' said Bobby Wick, and ordered new wh

ff fever and the Companies on parade fifteen file strong at the outside. There's rather more sickness in the out-villages than I care for, but then I'm so blistered with prickly-heat that I'm ready to hang myself. Wh

t go into camp. The message flashed to the Hill stations. 'Cholera Leave stopped Officers recalled.' Alas for the white gloves in the neatly-soldered boxes, the rides and the dances and picnics that were to be, the loves ha

by had said, or how many waltzes he had claimed for the next ball. Six in the morning saw Bobby at the Tonga Office in the dr

raise dat tonga? I'm coming with you. Ow! But I've a head and a half. I didn't

at at the wh

flock with

corpse u

bride at

se than bride, though, this journey

sing the latest news from the stricken cantonment, and it was

Regiment, 'they went into camp with two hundred and ten sick in carts. Two hundred and ten fever cases only,

as be-damned when I

s fit as bedamned when you rej

ontingent with all speed; the lathering ponies of the Dalhousie Road staggered into Pathankot, taxed to the full stretch of their strength; while from cloudy Darjiling the Calcutta Mail whirled up

and went about his own forthwith, for every Regiment and Battery in

temporary mess, and Revere could have fallen on the boy's ne

nk, poor fools, after the first two cases, and there was no improvem

ld do no earthly good, and that the best thing would be to send the entire Regiment into hospital and 'let the doctors look after them.' Porkiss was demoralised with fear, nor was his peace of mind restored when Revere said coldly: 'Oh! The sooner you go o

days later, quitted this world for another where, men do fondly hope, allowances are made for the weaknesses of t

then, please God, it'll stop.' The Sergeants were silent till one s

was nearly at an end; scuttling on his dun pony round the outskirts of the camp, and heading back men who, with the innate perversity of British soldiers, were always wandering into infected villages, or drinking deeply from rain-flooded marshes; comforting the panic-stricken wi

y,' said Revere in a moment of enthusi

he power that possessed the boy. A letter came to Bobby every other day. The spelling was not above reproach, but the sentiments must have been most satisfactory, for

s some rough diamonds indeed, was a mystery to both skipper and C. O., who learned from the regimental

id the Colonel, who did his daily round and ordered the men t

, sir,' s

t's not contagious, but there's no use in running unnec

ived a letter, bore it off to his tent, and, the programme for the next week's Sing-song being satisfactorily disposed of, sat down to answer it. For an hour the unhandy p

the tent door; 'but Dormer's 'orrid ba

Wick, running the blotter over the half-finish

oice hesitatingly. There was an u

id Bobby i

in' the liberty, 'e says it would be

ready. What blasted nuisances you are! That's brandy. Drink some;

wink, the Hospital Orderly kept up with the slipping, mud-stain

.' He had all but reached the stage of c

he man. 'You're not going out this time. You've g

per said, 'Beg y' pardon, sir, disturbin' of yo

by set his lips and waited, the water dripping from the hem of his trousers. An hour passed and the grasp of the hand did not relax, nor did the expression of the d

on the side of a sick man's cot, and a Doctor in

ll night, you young a

' said Bobby ruefully.

his head and sighed. The clinging hand opene

have been a toss-up all through the night. '

n't care to take my hand away. Rub my arm down, there's a good chap. What a grip

g waters. Four days later he sat on the side of his cot and said to t

did not intend to say that the chill of a sick man's hand seemed to have struck into the heart whose capacities for affection he dwelt on at such length. He did intend to enclose the illustrated programme of the forthcoming Sing

e the rest of us credit of doing a little work. You go on a

done up, somehow.' Revere looked

mour that brought men out of their cots to the tent doors, a paddling

; and through twenty tents ran

oaned. 'Any one but Bobby and I shouldn't

ifted from the doolie. 'Not going out this journey.' Th

Surgeon–Major, who had hastened over

was interrupted by a hairy apparition in a bluegray dressing-gown who stared in horror at the be

of three days, and the Surgeon–Major's brow uncreased. 'We'll save him yet,' he said; and the Surgeon, who, tho

whispered Bobby Wick gallantly

on–Major. 'That's the w

Bobby's mouth, and he turned his face to the

ntly. 'What's the use of bothering me wit

, and Bobby was content to drift

'He doesn't want to live. He's meeting

Sing-song, for the men had been told that Bobby was out of danger.

single jo

ould neve

love me, 't

good-by

tation crossed the boy's face,

by?' 'Not that waltz,' muttered Bobby. 'That

stupor that gave place to

issioner of Chota–Buldana in the keenest sorrow of his life. Bobby's little store of papers lay in confusion on the table, and among them a half-finished lett

an hour. When he came out hi

tened to a not unfamiliar tune. Private Conklin was

lin. 'There's another b

d with a smithyful of sparks. A tall man in a blue

? Bloomin' orf'cer? I'll learn you to misname the lik

h the justice of the punishment that he did n

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