Part 57 (2/2)

”Late apricots from the garden of the ruined Convent, and peaches from its west wall, gathered in the dead of night by Sister Cleophee and Sister Tobias,” ”Gold Pen” goes on to say, ”were greatly appreciated by the guests, each of whom brought his or her own bread.”

A most villainous kind of bannock of unleavened mealie-meal and crushed oats, calculated to try the strongest teeth and trouble the toughest digestion, ”Gold Pen” might have added. But the game was to make believe you rather enjoyed it than otherwise. If you had no teeth and no digestion, you were allowed a pint and a half of sowens porridge instead; and thus helped your portion of exhausted cavalry mount or your bit of tough mule-meat down. And so you went on like your neighbours, playing the game, while your eyes grew larger and your girth less, and your cheekbones more in evidence with every day that dawned.

Cheekbones have a strange, unnatural effect when they appear in childish faces. There was a child in a rusty double perambulator that had been a stylish baby-carriage only a little while ago, whose wizened face and shrunken hands were pitiable to see. He was wheeled by a sallow woman, with hollow, grey-blue eyes--a woman whose black alpaca gown hung loosely on her wasted figure, and whose shabby, c.r.a.pe-trimmed hat was pinned on anyhow. Siege confinement and siege terrors, siege smells and siege diet, had made strange havoc of the plump comeliness of a matronly lady who once rustled in purple satin befitting a Mayor's wife. She had lost one of her children through diphtheria, and she knew, unless a miracle happened, that she would also lose the boy.

Only look at him! She told you in that dull, toneless voice of hers how st.u.r.dy he had been, how strong and masterful--how pretty, too, with his plume of fair hair tumbling into his big, s.h.i.+ning, grey eyes! The eyes were bigger than ever now, but the light and the life had sunk out of them, and his round face was pinched, and the colour of old wax. And the arm that hung idly over the side of the little carriage was withered and shrunken--the hand of an old man, and not of a child. The other, under the light shawl that tucked him in, hugged something that bulged under the coverlet.

”His father can't bear to look at him,” the Mayor's wife said, glancing at the Mayor's carefully-averted back. ”And I'm sure it's no wonder. He just lies like this, day and night, and doesn't want to move, or answer when you speak to him, and he won't eat. The food is dreadful, but still he might try, just to comfort his mother----”

”I does twy,” piped Hammy weakly, ”and ven my tummy shuts, and it isn't no use twying any more.”

The Mother-Superior brought a gaily-coloured little china cup of that rare luxury, new milk, and bent over him, saying cheerfully, as she held it to the colourless mouth, ”Not always, Hammy. Taste this.”

”No, fank you.” He turned his head away, tightly shutting his eyes.

”It's real milk, Hammy, not condensed,” the soft voice pleaded. He shook his head again, and knit his childish brows.

”I saided it wasn't no use. My tummy just shuts.”

”I think I would not bother him any more just now,” Saxham interposed, noting the droop of the piteous, flaccid mouth, and feeling the flutter of the uneven pulse. The Mayor's wife broke into helpless sobbing. The Mother-Superior drew her swiftly out of the sick child's hearing and sight. And a shadow fell upon the thin light coverlet, and a crisp, decided voice said:

”Then Hammy's tummy is a mutinous soldier, and must be taught to obey the Word of Command.”

”Mister Colonel ...” The dull, childish eyes grew a very little brighter, and the claw-like hand went up in shaky salute to the limp plume of fair hair, not glistening and silky now, but dull and unkempt, that fell over the broad, darkly-veined waxen forehead.--”It is Mister Colonel.... And I haven't seen you for ever an' ever so long. An' Berta's deaded, an', an'----” The whisper was almost inaudible.... ”Vere's something I did so want to tell!” The hidden arm came from under the coverings ”It's about my Winocewus, vis beast what you gived me, ever so long ago.” He displayed the treasured toy.

”You shall tell me about Berta and the rhinoceros when I have told you something. A Certain Person can come out of this vehicle, I suppose, Saxham? It will make no difference, in the long-run, to a Certain Person's health?”

”Why, nothing in Heaven or upon earth will make any difference at this juncture,” returned Saxham, speaking in the same tone, ”unless a Certain Person can be roused to the necessary pitch of desiring food. To administer it forcibly would, in my opinion, be worse than useless.”

The Certain Person was lifted out of his cramped quarters by vigorous but gentle hands. The Colonel Commanding sat down with him upon a camp-stool, and as the wasted legs dangled irresponsibly from his supporting knees, and the hot head rolled helplessly against the row of coloured bits of medal-ribbon that were sewn on the left breast of the khaki jacket, he began to talk, holding the limp little body with a kind, sustaining arm.

”You've seen how my men obey me, Hammy? Well, your brain and your eyes, your arms and legs, and hands and feet, as well as your tummy, are your soldiers. And it's mutiny if they refuse to carry out the Officer's orders. And you're the Officer, you know.”

”Am I ve Officer, weally?”

Interest was quickening in the heavy eyes.

”You're the Officer. And I'm the Colonel in Command. And when I say to you, 'Lieutenant Hammy, drink this milk,' why, you'll pa.s.s along the order to Sergeant Brain and Corporal Eyes and Privates Hands and Mouth and Tummy, and see that they carry it out. Where is----? Ah! thank you, ma'am; that was what I wanted.”

For the Mother-Superior had deftly put the gaily-coloured little china cup into the lean, brown, outstretched hand, and, seeing what was coming, the Lieutenant shed an unsoldierly tear and raised a feeble whimper.

”Please, no, Mister Colonel! My tummy----”

”Private Tummy is a s.h.i.+rker, who doesn't want to do his duty. But it's your duty as his Commanding Officer to show him that it must be done. And that's the game we're playing. You'll employ tact before you have recourse to stringent measures. Not make the fellow dogged or furious by angry words or threats. When it's necessary to shoot, shoot straight. But, first, you give the order.”

”Oughtn't ve officer to have a wevolver?”

”Wait a second, and you shall have mine.”

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