Part 3 (2/2)
The long and short of that was that Ranjoor Singh was sent for; and when he returned to the trench after two days' absence it was to work independently of us-fros Even Colonel Kirby now had no orders to give hi and at frequent intervals in the place Colonel Kirby called his funk-hole It was now that the squadron's reawakening love for Ranjoor Singh received the worst check of any We had alotten he knew German Henceforward he conversed in Ger, sahib,-not easy to explain-but I, who have achieved soift of tongues, now began to doubt hi hih, who had talked the an to take his side
And Ranjoor Singh said nothing Night after night he went to lie at the point where our trench and the enemy's lay closest There he would talk with so in the mud Cold we can endure, sahib, as readily as any; it is colder in winter where I co I felt in Flanders; but the rain and the mud depressed our spirits, until with these two eyes I have seen grown e us Our spells in the trench were shortened and our rests at the rear increased to the ut ever on the watch, passing fro ever with the enely to find the other's listening places and to blow the, so that the earth becaround, where were only ruin and barbed wire, there was no sign of activity, but only a great stench that came from bodies none dared bury We were thankful that the wind blew oftenest froh knew no rest He was ever to be found where the lines lay closest at theWe understood very well that he was carrying out orders given hiiment like him any better, and as far as that went I was one with theues
It was plain enough that so headway, for the Geran to toss over into our trench bundles of printed paue why they were our best friends and why therefore we should refuse to ar on theood Punjabi, there was revolution froland, utter disaster to the British fleet, and that our way hoain to India had been cut by the Gernorant of the fact that we received our ularly I have noticed this about the Germans: they are unable to convince thes they appreciate, think as swiftly as they, or despise the terrors they despise That is one reason why they must lose this war But there are others also
One afternoon, when I was pretending to doze in a niche near the entrance to Colonel Kirby's funk-hole, I became possessed of the key to it all; for Colonel Kirby's voice was raised h had orders to deceive the Germans as to our state ofmutinous and that the leaven only needed time in which to work; this of course for the purpose of throwing the while I listened, for what ? Even so I think I would have held h, who dozed in a niche on the other side of the funk-hole entrance, heard the sa to the troopers round about: ”They chose well,” said he ”They picked a brave man-a clever man, for a desperate venture!” And when the troopers asked what that ht oat tied to a stake to lure a panther The suggestionfall no word that could be thrown back in his teeth, he condeh for a worse traitor than any had yet believed hih was a erous
”Ranjoor Singh is brave,” said he, ”for he is not afraid to sacrifice us all Many officers are afraid to lose tooof an end, but not so he He is clever, for who else would have thought ofus seem despicable to the Germans in order to tempt them to attack in force at this point? Have ye not noticed how to our rear all is being made ready for the defense and for a counter-attack to follow? We are the bait The battle is to be waged over our dead bodies”
I corrected him I said I had heard as well as he, and that Colonel Kirby was utterly angry at the defamation of those whom he was ever pleased to call ”his Sikhs” But that convinced nobody, although it did the colonel sahib no hariment's opinion-not that he needed advocates We were all ready to die around Colonel Kirby at any h was ready to do that
”Does the colonel sahib accept the situation?” one of the troopers asked
”Aye, for he h; and I could not deny it ”Ranjoor Singh went over his head and orders have coh I did not believe it How should I, or any one, knohat passed after Ranjoor Singh had been sent for by the Intelligence officers? I was his half-friend in those days, sahib Worse than his eneainst him, yet unready to speak up in his defense Doubtlessthe troopers
The end of the discussion foundto be bait,” said they, ”then so be we, but let us see to it that none hang back” And so the whole regiment made up its lance at Ranjoor Singh, atched uessed in those days If he had tried to slip back to the rear it would have been the end of hireat force gathered at our rear-gathered and grew-Indian and British infantry Guns by the fifty were brought forward under cover of the night and placed in line behind us Ranjoor Singh continued talking with the ene printed stuff to us that we turned in to our officers But the Gerrew
Then one evening, just after dusk, ere all amazed by the news that the assault was to come frouns at our rear began their overture, rasp or convey They hurled such a torrent of shells that the Germans could neitherup others to their aid It did not seem possible that one German could be left alive, and I even felt jealous because, thought I, no ould be left for us to do! Yet ht and a day our ordnance kept up that preparation, and then ent around
Who shall tell of a night attack, fro the earth in front of us and lifted to make a screen of fire almost a mile beyond There was instant pitch darkness on every hand, and out of that a hundred trumpets sounded Instantly, each squadron leader leaped the earthwork, shouting to his h leaped up in front of us, and we followed hi their distrust of hi only how he had led us in the charge on that first night The air was thick with din, and fu to use artillery I ceased to think of anything but going forward Who shall describe it?
Once in Boive up their dead That is not our Sikh idea of judght before ht attack in Flanders He spoke of the whole earth trereat long truraves where they lay buried Not a poor picture, sahib, of a night attack in Flanders!
The first line of Ger by our guns The barbed wire had been cut into frag protruded froround-here and there a head For two hundred yards and perhapsto oppose us, except the ene so constantly that we seemed to breathe splintered reat that it see forithout sound of footfall I could neither feel nor think for the first two hundred yards, but ran with my bayonet out in front of me And then I did feel A Ger such as I hope never to know again
The Germans did not seem to have been taken by surprise at all They hadus in conteave no evidence of that Their wounded were unwilling to surrender because their officers had given out ould torture prisoners We had to pounce on them, and cut their buttons off and slit their boots, so that they must use both hands to hold their trousers up and could not run And that took tied behind a little, for we took ht and left of us The Dogra regiained on us fast, and we became, as it were, the center of a newshellsColonel Kirby and Ranjoor Singh and Captain Fellowes and so on us for our greatest effort We answered We swept forward after them into the teeth of all the inventions in the world Mine afterus There began to be uncut wire, and ht obliterated, but that proved only to have been hidden under debris by our gun-fire Shadows resolved into trenches defended by uns
But ent forward-cavalry, without a spur a us-cavalry with rifles-cavalry on foot-infantry with the fire and the drill and the thoughts of cavalry-still cavalry at heart, for all the weapons they had given us and the trench life we had lived We remembered, sahib, that the Germans had been educated lately to despise us, and ere out that night to convert theood to D Squadron that Ranjoor Singh, who had done the defa could stop us that night
Whereas we had been last in the advance, we charged into the lead and held it We swept on I know not how far, but very far beyond the wings Nothe distance covered, and I suppose Headquarters tie how far the advance had carried, with the aid ofback No easy task!
At all events we lost touch with the regiht and left, but kept touch with the ene forward until suddenly our own shell-fire ceased to fall in front of us but resue, sahib Its purpose is to prevent the ene theround won That meant ere isolated It needed no staff officer to tell, us that, or to bring us to our senses We were like htmare, to find the truth more dreadful than the dream