Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti, G. A. Henty [free e novels .txt] 📗

A heavy fire was opened upon them, and the whole of the 2nd Brigade and the 15th Sikhs from the 1st Brigade went out in support.

"While the 11th Bengal Lancers were searching for a ford, they came under a heavy fire from a village at the foot of a knoll, 600 yards from the river. A mountain battery quickly silenced this fire, and two squadrons of Bengal Lancers and one of the Guides, crossing the ford, pursued the enemy five or six miles, and cut off about a hundred of them. Opposite the village they discovered another ford, where two could pass at once and, the next day, the rest of the brigade followed them. The people of the Swat Valley speedily accommodated themselves to the situation, and brought in sheep, fowls, and other things for sale.

"On the 9th, headquarters joined the 2nd Brigade at Chakdara, and the 3rd Brigade encamped on the south side of the river. On the 11th the headquarters and the 2nd Brigade arrived at the Panjkora River. A bridge had to be built across this but, on the 13th, just as it was finished, a flood came down and washed it away.

"A party were sent across at daybreak to burn the villages; which had, during the night, been firing on the advance guard of the 2nd Brigade. They accomplished their work but, while engaged upon it, were attacked by a very large force. The carrying away of the bridge rendered the position extremely dangerous, and the force was ordered, by signal, to fall back upon the river; while the Brigade covered their retreat from the opposite bank. The retreating column was sorely pressed, although the Maxim guns and the mountain battery opened fire upon the enemy. Colonel Battye was mortally wounded, and so hotly did the Afridis follow up their attack that a company of the Guides fixed bayonets, and charged them.

"As, however, the enemy still persisted in their attack, the force set to work to entrench themselves. This they managed to do, with the aid of a Maxim gun of the 11th; which had crossed one of the branches of the river, and got into a position flanking the entrenchments. All night the enemy kept up a heavy fire. In the morning the force were still unable to pass. However, during the day the 4th Sikhs came across on rafts, and passed the night with them. The force was much exhausted, for they had been more than forty-eight hours without a meal.

"Working day and night, in forty-eight hours another bridge was constructed, on the suspension system, with telegraph wires. Until it was finished, communication was maintained with the other bank by means of a skin raft, handled by two active boatmen.

"We had only one more fight, and that was a slight one. Then the news reached us that the position of Chitral was serious, and General Gatacre was hurried forward with our force."

"You had some tough fighting," the colonel said, "but the number of your casualties would seem to show that ours was the stiffer task. At the same time we must admit that, if you hadn't been detained for six or seven days at that river, you would have beaten us in the race."

"Yes, we were all mad, as you may well imagine, at being detained so long there. Our only hope was that your small force would not be able to fight its way through, until our advance took the spirit out of the natives. Certainly they fought very pluckily, in their attacks upon the force that had crossed; and that action came very close to being a serious disaster.

"The flood that washed away our bridge upset all our calculations. I almost wonder that the natives, when they found that we could not cross the river, did not hurry up to the assistance of the force that was opposing you. If they had done so, it would have been very awkward."

"It would have gone very hard with us, for they are splendid skirmishers and, if we had not had guns with us to effectually prevent them from concentrating anywhere, and had had to depend upon rifle fire alone, I have some doubts whether our little force would have been able to make its way through the defiles."

"Well, it has been a good undertaking, altogether; and I hope that the punishment that has been inflicted will keep the tribes quiet for some years."

"They will probably be quiet," the officer said, "till trouble breaks out in some other quarter, and then they will be swarming out like bees."

"It is their nature to be troublesome," the colonel said. "They are born fighters, and there is no doubt that the fact that most of them have got rifles has puffed them up with the idea that, while they could before hold their passes against all intruders, it would be now quite impossible for us to force our way in, when they could pick us off at twelve hundred paces.

"I wish we could get hold of some of the rascally traders who supply them with rifles of this kind. I would hang them without mercy. Of course, a few of the rifles have been stolen; but that would not account in any way for the numbers they have in their hands. A law ought to be passed, making it punishable by death for any trader to sell a musket to a native; not only on the frontier, but throughout India. The custom-house officers should be forced to search for them in every ship that arrives; the arms and ammunition should be confiscated; and the people to whom they are consigned should be fined ten pounds on every rifle, unless it could be proved that the consignment was made to some of the native princes, who had desired them for the troops raised as subsidiary forces to our own."

The colonel then related Lisle's story in the campaign, which created unbounded surprise among the guests.

"It was a marvellous undertaking for a young fellow to plan and carry out," one of them said. "There are few men who could have kept up the character; fewer still who would have attempted it, even to take part in a campaign. I am sure, colonel, that we all hope your application for a commission for him will be granted; for he certainly deserves it, if ever a fellow did."

There was a general murmur of assent and, shortly afterwards, the meeting broke up; for it was already a very late hour.

The rest of the campaign was uneventful. Lisle speedily fell back into the life he had led before the campaign began, except that he now acted as an officer. He already knew so much of the work that he had no difficulty, whatever, in picking up the rest of his duties. He was greatly pleased that the colonel said nothing more to Gholam Singh, and the native officers of his company and, by the time the regiment marched back to Peshawar, he was as efficient as other officers of his rank.

He had, after his father's death, written down to his agents at Calcutta; and had received a thousand rupees of the sum standing to his account, in their hands. He was therefore able to pay his share of the mess expenses; which were indeed very small for, with the exception of fowls and milk, it was impossible to buy anything to add to the rations given to them.

The march down was a pleasant one. There was no longer any occasion for speed. The snow had melted in the passes, the men were in high spirits at the success that had attended their advance, and the fact that they had been the first to arrive to the rescue of the garrison of Chitral.

A month after they reached Peshawar, Lisle was sent for by Colonel Kelly.

"I am pleased, indeed, to be able to inform you that my urgent recommendation of you has received attention, and that you have been gazetted as lieutenant, dating from the day of our arrival at Chitral. I congratulate you most heartily."

"I am indeed most delighted, sir. I certainly owe my promotion entirely to your kindness."

"Certainly not, Lisle; you well deserve it. I am sorry to say that you will have to leave us; for you are gazetted to the 103rd Punjabi Regiment, who are stationed at Rawalpindi."

"I am sorry indeed to hear that, sir; though of course, I could hardly have expected to remain with you. I shall be awfully sorry to leave. You have all been so kind to me, and I have known you all so long. Still, it is splendid that I have got my commission. I might have waited three or four years, in England; and then been spun at the examination."

Lisle marched down with the regiment to Peshawar. Here he had his uniforms made, laid in a stock of requisites, and then, after a hearty farewell from his friends, proceeded to join his regiment, which was lying at Rawalpindi. He took with him Robah, whom the major relinquished in his favour.

On his arrival at the station, he at once reported himself to the colonel.

"Ah! I saw your name in the gazette, a short time since. You must have lost no time in coming out from England."

"I was in India when I was gazetted, sir."

"Well, I am glad that you have joined so speedily; for I am short of officers, at present. There is a spare tent, which my orderly will show you. We shall have tiffin in half an hour, when I can introduce you to the other officers."

When Lisle entered the mess tent, he was introduced to the other officers, one of whom asked him when he had arrived from England.

"I have never been to England. I was born out here. My father was a captain in the 32nd Punjabis, and was killed in an attack on a hill fort. That was some months ago, and I remained with the regiment, whose quarters had always been my home, until there should be an opportunity for my being sent down to Calcutta."

"Well, it is very decent of the War Office to give you a commission; though, of course, it is the right thing to do--but it is not often that they do the right thing. Your regiment did some sharp fighting on their way up to Chitral, but of course you saw nothing of that."

"Yes; I accompanied the regiment."

"The deuce you did!" the colonel said. "I wonder you managed to get up with it, or that Colonel Kelly gave you leave. I certainly should not, myself, have dreamed of taking a civilian with me on such an expedition."

Lisle nodded.

"The colonel did not give me leave, sir. With the aid of one of the native officers, with whom my father was a favourite, I obtained a native uniform; and went through the campaign as a private."

The officers all looked upon him with astonishment.

"Do you mean to say that you cooked with them, fought with them, and lived with them, as one of themselves?"

"That was so, sir; and it was only at the last fight that the truth came out, for then one of the officers heard me make a remark to myself, in English. Fortunately, the native officers gave a very good account of my conduct. I was one of a small party that descended a cliff with ropes, and did a good deal towards driving the Chitralis out of their position."

"But how was it that you were not recognized by the soldiers?"

"I speak the language as well as I speak my own," Lisle said quietly. "Having lived with the regiment all my life, I learned to speak it like a native."

"Well," the colonel said, "it was a plucky thing for you to do. The idea of disguising yourself in that way was a very happy one; but not many officers would like to go through such a campaign as a private in the Pioneers, or any other Indian regiment.

"Well, I congratulate myself in having acquired an officer who must, at any rate, understand a great deal of his work, and who can talk to the men in their own language; instead of, as I expected, a raw lad.

"How old are you, Mr. Bullen? You look very young."

"I am only a little past sixteen," Lisle said, with a laugh; "but I don't suppose the War Office knew that. Colonel Kelly was kind enough to send in a strong recommendation on my behalf; stating, I believe, the fact, that I had disguised myself as a private in order to go to Chitral with the regiment, and that, as he was pleased to say, I distinguished myself. He at once appointed me, temporarily, as an officer; and as such I remained with the corps, until their return to Peshawar. He also, of course, mentioned the fact that I am the son of Captain Bullen, who lost his life in bravely