Part 37 (1/2)

”Same as before, sir,” replied the sergeant. ”s.h.i.+ndy in Number Three.

'Tain't no manner o' use s.h.i.+ftin' 'is room. He'd purwurt a Sunday School.”

Solid truth in every word! Yet the light blue eyes which met mine had a twinkle in them that softened my heart.

”If you are such a cursed fool,” I said, as sternly as I could, ”you'll come to grief.”

His face took on sublime innocence. ”Beg pardin, sir; but it ralely ain't fair w'en a party is trying to do 'is dooty to 'is parsters an'

marsters. Them young chaps was makin' fun hover your monkey usin' the major's py-jammas has a slopper; an' I only tole 'm it was kind o'

disrespekful like, as she meant it hall in k'yindness, an' bid 'm hold their jaw. That's how the tin dishes got hinjured, for,” he added, with great dignity, ”I won't 'ave no slanderin' o' dumb animals as can't speak up for thesselves.”

A gleam of hope shot through me. ”You're fond of animals, are you?” I asked.

For once candid confidence came to him. ”Well! I don' know, sir,” he replied, ”but 'twas the loss o' a dorg as fust set me wrong.” He gave a glance towards the sergeant, who was discreetly retiring, and then went on. ”I was but a young chap, just gone twenty, and the dorg was a bull tarrier, sir, as good as they make 'm. S'yme n'yme as your monkey, sir--Jennie. We was chums. Then I got a gel, one o' the yaller-haired kind, sir, an' I was a fool about her, as young chaps is apt ter be.

Well, sir, I 'adn't bin just steddy--no real 'arm, you know, but sort o' light like. But I settles down an' begins ter screw against gettin'

married. The yaller-haired gel was livin' with me, sir, so as to save time like, but we was sure to get married in church an' go hoff emigrating so soon as I'd got the 'oof. An' Jennie was to go, too, for she an' me was chums. Well, sir, there was a big, black chap, coster he was, I licked him more nor once for 'angin' round; but there! females are built that way. So it 'appened when I come 'ome one hevening that I found 'er gone, an' the 'oof too. An' Jennie----” he drew his hand slowly over his mouth--”Jennie had died game, sir. She 'ad a bit of the big black brute's corduroys betwixt 'er teeth, but 'e'd bashed 'er 'ead open with 'is boot.”

There was silence. Then he went on with a reckless laugh, ”'Tweren't the gel, sir; there's plenty o' them ter be got, yaller hair an' all.

But Jennie an' me had been chums.”

Five minutes later the monkey had changed masters. To oblige me and save Jennie from being shot Dy'sy Bell had promised to take care of her.

”I'u'd rather 'ave no money, sir,” he said, when he appeared to fetch her away and I offered him something towards her keep, ”'twould only go to the canteen, and if I get into trouble, oo'd look after 'er?”

'”Er,” I may mention, had just bitten his finger through to the bone, an action which he dismissed with the remark that ”females was built that way.”

Three days later, as I rode past Number Three barrack, I saw Jennie cracking nuts on a brand-new perch. Dy'sy, it now appeared, was quite a smart carpenter, and had made it himself in the workshop. Three days after that again, the perch was embellished by a bra.s.s chain, and Dy'sy admitted shamefacedly that he had once been in a foundry. So time pa.s.sed on, until it occurred to me that Dy'sy had ceased to come into prominence before me as company officer, and I questioned the sergeant concerning him.

The official did not move a muscle. ”Number Three's has quiet has a orphin asylum now, sir. As I lies in my bunk I don't 'ear no whisper.

But it was Bedlam broke loose the fust night after Jennie come, sir. I lay low, seeing as there never was no use in tryin' to get at the bottom o' that sort o' row in the dark, sir. An' next morning 'arf the room complained of 'avin' a hunbaptised brute put to bed with 'em. The monkey slep' with Dy'sy, sir, so I spoke to 'im, an' told 'im I c'u'dn't 'ave no more complaints, an' he replied, quite civil-like, as there sh'u'dn't be none. An' there wasn't; but 'arf the men 'ad black eyes that week, sir, though 'ow they came by 'm they didn't say.”

I did not enquire. It was sufficient for me that Number Three barrack was rapidly becoming regenerate. As I pa.s.sed one day I heard a voice say, ”Now, boys! I won't 'ave no cuss words; they ain't fit for a lydy to hear.”

”You don't go so often to the canteen as you used to, Bell,” I said to him one day when I found him sitting alone in the verandah nursing Jennie, who jibbered at me.

”Ain't got the money, sir,” he replied cheerfully. ”_Neringis_ and sich--like is a horful price in this Gordforsaken spot, an' Jennie's been a bit ailin'; won't eat nothing else.”

”Well, you'll be getting your stripes soon, I expect, if you go on as you are doing,” I remarked.

He flushed up. ”I 'opes so, sir,” he said modestly. ”Jennie 'u'd set store by a striped sleeve, females being built that way.”

My prophecy proved correct. Dy'sy was made a corporal, and before long, in the Border campaign which the cold weather brought us, found himself a sergeant, and so eventually in charge of a telegraph station on the top of one of the pa.s.ses to our rear.

It was an important post to keep open, since on the integrity of the wire through a mile or so of singularly difficult country hung the certainty of speedy relief, should any kind of disaster overtake our little force, which was intimidating the tribes in the valleys beyond.

And disaster did overtake it, chiefly by reason of a terrific snowstorm which swept over it early in February--a snowstorm which paralysed progress, and made all thoughts turn to the probability of that mile of telegraph wire remaining intact.