Soldiers Three - Part 2

“How do you mean?” said The Infant, delighted at being directly appealed to by the great man.

“Good Heavens! How am I to make you understand, if you can’t see. In the first place, what is your age?”

“Twenty-three next July,” said The Infant promptly.

Cleever questioned the others with his eyes.

“I’m twenty-four,” said Nevin.

“And I’m twenty-two,” said Boileau.

“And you’ve all seen service?”

“We’ve all knocked about a little bit, sir, but The Infant’s the war-worn veteran. He’s had two years’ work in Upper Burma,” said Nevin.

“When you say work, what do you mean, you extraordinary creatures?”

“Explain it, Infant,” said Nevin.

“Oh, keeping things in order generally, and running about after little dakus — that’s dacoits — and so on. There’s nothing to explain.”

“Make that young Leviathan speak,” said Cleever impatiently, above his glass.

“How can he speak?” said I. “He’s done the work. The two don’t go together. But, Infant, you’re ordered to bukb.”

“What about? I’ll try.”

“Bukb about a daur. You’ve been on heaps of ‘em,” said Nevin.

“What in the world does that mean? Has the Army a language of its own?”

The Infant turned very red. He was afraid he was being laughed at, and he detested talking before outsiders; but it was the author of “As it was in the Beginning” who waited.

“It’s all so new to me,” pleaded Cleever; “and — and you said you liked my book.”

This was a direct appeal that The Infant could understand, and he began rather flurriedly, with much slang bred of nervousness —

“Pull me up, sir, if I say anything you don’t follow. About six months before I took my leave out of Burma, I was on the Hlinedatalone, up near the Shan States, with sixty Tommies — private soldiers, that is — and another subaltern, a year senior to me. The Burmese business was a subaltern’s war, and our forces were split up into little detachments, all running about the country and trying to keep the dacoits quiet. The dacoits were having a first-class time, y’ know — filling women up with kerosene and setting ‘em alight, and burning villages, and crucifying people.”

The wonder in Eustace Cleever’s eyes deepened. He could not quite realise that the cross still existed in any form.

“Have you ever seen a crucifixion?” said he.

“Of course not. ‘Shouldn’t have allowed it if I had; but I’ve seen the corpses. The dacoits had a trick of sending a crucified corpse down the river on a raft, just to show they were keeping their tail up and enjoying themselves. Well, that was the kind of people I had to deal with.”

“Alone?” said Cleever. Solitude of the soul he could understand — none better — but he had never in the body moved ten miles from his fellows.

“I had my men, but the rest of it was pretty much alone. The nearest post that could give me orders was fifteen miles away, and we used to heliograph to them, and they used to give us orders same way — too many orders.”

“Who was your C. O.?” said Boileau.

“Bounderby — Major. Pukka Bounderby; more Bounder than pukka. He went out up Bhamo way. Shot, or cut down, last year,” said The Infant.

“What are these interludes in a strange tongue?” said Cleever to me.

“Professional information — like the Mississippi pilots’ talk,” said I. “He did not approve of his major, who died a violent death. Go on, Infant.”

“Far too many orders. You couldn’t take the Tommies out for a two days’ daur — that’s expedition — without being blown up for not asking leave. And the whole country was humming with dacoits. I used to send out spies, and act on their information. As soon as a man came in and told me of a gang in hiding, I’d take thirty men with some grub, and go out and look for them, while the other subaltern lay doggo in camp.”

“Lay! Pardon me, but how did he lie?” said Cleever.

“Lay doggo — lay quiet, with the other thirty men. When I came back, he’d take out his half of the men, and have a good time of his own.”

“Who was he?” said Boileau.

“Carter-Deecey, of the Aurungabadis. Good chap, but too zubberdusty, and went bokhar four days out of seven. He’s gone out too. Don’t interrupt a man.”

Cleever looked helplessly at me.

“The other subaltern,” I translated swiftly, “came from a native regiment, and was overbearing in his demeanour. He suffered much from the fever of the country, and is now dead. Go on, Infant.”

“After a bit, we got into trouble for using the men on frivolous occasions, and so I used to put my signaller under arrest to prevent him reading the helio-orders. Then I’d go out and leave a message to be sent an hour after I got clear of the camp, something like this: ‘Received important information; start in an hour, unless countermanded.’ If I was ordered back, it didn’t much matter. I swore the C. O.‘s watch was wrong, or something, when I came back. The Tommies enjoyed the fun, and — Oh, yes, there was one Tommy who was the bard of the detachment. He used to make up verses on everything that happened.”

“What sort of verses?” said Cleever.

“Lovely verses; and the Tommies used to sing ‘em. There was one song with a chorus, and it said something like this.” The Infant dropped into the true barrack-room twang:

“Theebaw, the Burma king, did a very foolish thing, When ‘e mustered ‘ostile forces in ar-rai, ‘E little thought that we, from far across the sea, Would send our armies up to Mandalai!”

“O gorgeous!” said Cleever. “And how magnificently direct! The notion of a regimental bard is new to me, but of course it must be so.”

“He was awfly popular with the men,” said The Infant. “He had them all down in rhyme as soon as ever they had done anything. He was a great bard. He was always ready with an elegy when we picked up a Boh — that’s a leader of dacoits.”

“How did you pick him up?” said Cleever.

“Oh! shot him if he wouldn’t surrender.”

“You! Have you shot a man?”

There was a subdued chuckle from all three boys, and it dawned on the questioner that one experience in life which was denied to himself, and he weighed the souls of men in a balance, had been shared by three very young gentlemen of engaging appearance. He turned round on Nevin, who had climbed to the top of the bookcase and was sitting cross-legged as before.

“And have you, too?”

“Think so,” said Nevin, sweetly. “In the Black Mountain. He was rolling cliffs on to my half-company, and spoiling our formation. I took a rifle from a man, and brought him down at the second shot.”

“Good Heavens! And how did you feel afterwards?”

“Thirsty. I wanted a smoke, too.”