THE SMITHY & NOBBY COLLECTION: 6 Novels & 90+ Stories in One Edition. Edgar Wallace

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СКАЧАТЬ the war that I ever saw the Boers charge a position, an’ twice that day we had to give way before their attacks. When night came, one out of every four men had been hit.

      “We posted strong guards that night expectin’ an attack, an’ we got all we expected.

      “Firin’ began before sun-up. Some of the Boers took up a position on a ridge where they could shoot from good cover, an’ two companies were ordered to clear the ridge. A an’ B companies went an’ did it. We took the position with the bayonet, an’ then found that it wasn’t worth holdin’.

      “We got the order to retire on our main post, an’ started to march away. Halfway down the slope lay a wounded Boer. He wasn’t a real Boer, bein’ a half-breed nigger, but as we passed he raised himself up an’ shouted ‘Water!’

      “‘Fall out Jones,’ sez the officer, an’ give that man a drink.’

      “What happened exactly I don’t know. We went marchin’ on, leavin’ Jones behind, an’ suddenly I heard the crack of a rifle, an’ looked round. The half-breed was runnin’ like mad toward the Boer lines, a rifle in his hand, an’ poor B. Jones lay very quiet on the hillside.

      “‘Shoot that man!’ shouts the officer, an’ a dozen men dropped on their knees an’ fired at the flyin’ murderer, but he dropped over the crest of the rise as quick as a flash.

      “We doubled back an’ carried the poor chap into camp, but it was all up with him, we could see that much. He was shot through the chest, an’ we carried him carefully to the rear.

      “Soon after this, the Boers returned to the attack, an’ we was so busily engaged wonderin’ when we’d be wounded ourselves that we had no time to think of B. Jones.

      “At one o’clock that afternoon the Boer firin’ went suddenly quiet, an’ half an hour later we heard a faraway pom-pom come into action, an’ knew a relief force was on its way.

      “Methuen it was, with his column, an’ most of us were very glad to see him. We had time now to count heads, an’ see who was up an’ who was down.

      “That,” said Nobby sadly, “is always the worse part of war. It’s the part where a corporal an’ twelve men go off with spades, an’ another party sews men up in blankets — men you’ve spoke to that mornin’; men you’ve larked with, an’ drank with.

      “I was fixin’ up me kit an’ givin’ me rifle a clean, when H. Jones strolled up.

      “He nodded to me an’ Smithy.

      “‘I hear me young brother’s down,’ he sez, quiet.

      “Yes, H.,’ I sez.

      “‘How did it happen? ‘ sez H. Jones. So I told him.

      “‘What like was this nigger?’ he asked after I finished.

      “As well as I could I described him. He was easy to describe, because he had a big yeller face an a crop of woolly hair.

      “‘Come along,’ he sez, after a bit, ‘an’ see me brother — he’s a pal of yours, ain’t he?’

      “We found poor B. lyin’ on the ground, on the shady side of an ox-wagon. The doctor was there, an’ when he saw H. he took him aside.

      “‘I suppose you know your brother is dyin’?’ he sez, an’ H. nodded, then turned to his brother.

      “‘How goes it, Jack?’ he sez gentle, an’ poor B. grinned.

      “‘So so,’ he sez weakly, ‘me number’s up.’

      “‘So they was tellin’ me,’ sez H. ‘Well, we’ve all got to go through it sooner or later.’

      “The dyin’ man nodded, an’ for a little while neither of ’em spoke.

      “‘Got any message to mother?’ sez H., an’ the poor chap on the ground nodded again.

      “‘Give her my kind regards,’ he sez. ‘ Take care of yourself, Fred.’

      “It seemed strange to me,” said Nobby, thoughtfully, “that these two brothers, one of them dyin’, should talk so calm one with the other, an’ I never realized till then how little a feller like me knows about the big things of life, an’ death.

      “Poor old B. died an hour later, an’ his brother was with him to the last. After it was all over he came to me.

      “‘Nobby,’ he sez, ‘which way did the Boers go?’

      “As it happened I’d heard one of Methuen’s staff officers describin’ the line of march the Boers were takin’, to I was able to tell him.

      “‘Thanks,’ he sez. That night he deserted.

      “What happened afterwards I heard from a Boer prisoner who told one of our sergeants.

      “H. Jones left the camp soon after midnight, an’ dodgin’ the sentries, an’ the outposts, he made his way in the direction of the Boers. For two days he tramped, sleepin’ at night on the open veldt an’ with nothin’ to eat but a biscuit he took away with him.

      “He was found by a Boer patrol, an’ as luck would have it, was taken to the very commando that held the ridge.

      “By all accounts, the chap in charge was a young lawyer who’d been educated in England an’ spoke English better than H. Jones ever could hope to speak it.

      “‘Hullo!’ he sez, when H. was marched before him, ‘an’ that the devil do you want?’

      “‘I’m lookin’ for the feller that killed me young brother,’ says H.

      “The young commandant shook his ‘head with a little smile.

      “‘I’m afraid,’ he sez very gently, ‘there are many people in this unfortunate country who are lookin’ for the man who killed their brothers.’

      “‘My brother was murdered,’ says H. doggedly, an’ told the tale.

      “‘I don’t believe any of me men would have done such a thing,’ he sez. ‘What sort of a man was it?’

      “So H. described him, an’ the young lawyer frowned.

      “‘Bring Van Huis here,’ he sez to a Boer, an’ by an’ by the man he sent for came — a half-bred Dutchman with a dash of Hottentot in him.

      “‘Oh, Van Huis,’ sez the Commandant careless, ‘they tell me you killed an English soldier at Valtspruit the other day?’

      “The man grinned.

      “‘Ja,’ he sez ‘I shot him dead.’

      “‘Tell me how you did it,’ sez the Commandant, pickin’ his teeth with a splinter of wood.

      “‘Hear,’ sez the half-breed, ‘I СКАЧАТЬ