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

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СКАЧАТЬ to the kopje, I came up to a mounted patrol of the Imperial Yeomanry, an’ after I’d given him me opinion of yeomen in general, an’ he’d been very candid about foot-sloggers, we parted bad friends.

      “‘Look out for the ghost,’ he sez.

      “‘Mind you don’t fall off that horse,’ I sez.

      “I’d gone a little way when I heard him come canterin’ after me.

      “‘Hi, Tommy,’ he called, an’ I turned round.

      “‘Not so much of the Tommy,’ I sez, ‘or I’ll stick a pin in your gallant charger!’

      “‘No offence,’ sez the yeoman, an’ then went on to tell me about the ghost. I hadn’t took much notice of the yarn till then, an’ I got a bit interested.

      “‘I’ve never seen it,’ sez the yeoman, ‘but one of our sergeants did. Let’s go up the kopje together an’ see what it’s like.’

      “‘Catch me climbin’ a hill,’ I sez, ‘when I can walk on the nice level road.’

      “‘You’re afraid,’ he sez.

      “‘I am,’ I sez. ‘I’m afraid of tirin’ me feet.’

      “We continued discussin’ the matter till we came up to the hill, an’ all the time I was gettin’ more an’ more curious. When he put his horse at the kopje, I sez: —

      “‘All right, I’ll come up with you — I ain’t seen a ghost for years.’

      “It was a kopje as like as two pins any other kopje I’ve seen.

      “There were thousands similar to it in South Africa. A gentle rise covered with boulders an’ stunted bush, with big stones underfoot to make the goin’ worse.

      “It was, as I’ve told you, a bright, moonlight night, a clear sky an’ not a breath of wind stirrin’, an’ as we got farther an’ farther up the side of the hill, the country sort of unrolled itself beneath. Over to the north, an’ seemin’ly under our feet, was the lights of Heilbron. Yon could hear sentries challengin’ in the town, an’ even the tramp of their feet as they marched up an’ down.

      “I was warm enough by the time I reached the top, an’ me an’ the yeoman stopped an’ looked round.

      “‘Where’s your ghost?’ I sez.

      “I’d hardly got the words out of me mouth when I had a queer sensation. I didn’t hear anythin’, or see anythin’, but I knew that there was somebody behind me, an’ I spun round, slippin’ me rifle from me shoulder.

      “An’ then I saw.

      “Comin’ up the hill, the same way we had come, was an officer. He was in full kit, with his helmet tilted over his eyes, an’ he was walkin’ slowly.

      “Me heart was in me mouth at first, but when I saw it was an officer I recovered.

      “‘Visitin’ rounds,’ I sez to the yeoman; but the yeoman said nothin’, an’ his horse started snortin’ an’ rearin’.

      “The officer was comin’ very slowly, with his head bent down as though he was lookin’ for somethin’ on the ground. Now an’ again he’d stop, an’ look left an’ right, but always on the ground.

      “‘What’s he lost? ‘ I sez in a low voice.

      “He didn’t seem to notice us, though we stood out clear enough in the moonlight, an’ I brought my rifle to the port.

      “‘Halt! Who comes there?’ I sez, but he took no notice.

      “Nearer an’ nearer he came, his eyes bent on the ground, an’ I challenged again

      “‘Halt! Who comes there?’

      “Then he looked up, an’ I saw that I was talkin’ to a dead man!

      “It was the face of a man who was dead: a grey face with a little red mark just above his right eye.

      “I staggered back; then, as the yeoman put spurs to his horse, an’ went clatterin’ an’ blunderin’ down the other side of the hill, I caught hold of his stirrup-leather an’ run with him….

      “The other fellers of the guard said I’d been moonstruck, an’ the corporal of the guard smelt me breath, but none of ’em took the trouble to go up the kopje and investigate.

      “Next mornin’, when the guard was relieved, I was sent for to orderly room.

      “‘I understand you saw a ghost, Clark?’ sez the Colonel.

      “‘Yes, sir,’ I sez, an’ told ‘im all about it.

      “Now the rum thing was that the Colonel didn’t laugh. He listened very quietly, noddin’ his head, an’ sayin’ nothin. When I finished he sez: —

      “‘This is all true, you have been tellin’ me?’

      “‘Yes, sir,’ I sez, ‘I’m willin’ to take me oath.’

      “He said no more, an’ I went back to me tent.

      “The fellers didn’t half roast me. Even Smithy called me a liar, an’ ‘Nobby’s ghost’ was the talk of the camp for weeks.

      “After the war was over, we was ordered home.

      “I forget the name of the ship we came home on, but I think it was the ‘Drayton Grange.’ We brought home a lot of ‘details,’ Engineers, Army Service Corps, an’ two squadrons of the 22nd Hussars.

      “After we’d all settled down an’ got to know one another, we used to have little bow-wows on the fo’c’sle head, an’ spent a lot of time tellin’ one another what gallant fellers we’d been.

      “There was a Hussar chap named Paul.

      “‘The most curious thing I’ve ever seen,’ he sez one afternoon, when we were all gassin’, ‘was the taking of Hussar Kop — any of you chaps know it, it’s near Heilbron?’

      “There was a bit of a laugh when he said this, an’ the chaps all looked at me.

      “‘We had a young officer,’ sez the Hussar, ‘Lieutenant Enden, his name was — a regular boy. He was engaged to a young lady in Canterbury, an’ I’ve never seen a feller so much in love in me life. Used to carry her picture in a little gold locket round his neck. I’ve seen him, when he thought nobody was lookin’, take it out, an’ have a dekko.

      “‘Well, about this fight I was speakin’ of. The Boers held the kopje, an’ two squadrons of Ours was sent to dislodge ‘em. There wasn’t such a number of the enemy on the kop that we couldn’t tackle ‘em.

      “‘We galloped up to the foot of the hill an’ dismounted СКАЧАТЬ