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

Ashanti force was captured, tried, and hanged. The queen also was caught and, on the 24th of April, a telegram was sent home with the words:

"The campaign is at an end."

There can be no doubt that this expedition will lead to great results. The natives of Ashanti and the surrounding tribes have received a lesson that will not be forgotten for a great number of years and, long before that time, it may be hoped that civilization will have made such strides there that there will be no more chance of trouble. They have been taught that they are absolutely unable to stand against the white man; that neither distance, the thickness of their forests, stockades, nor weather can check the progress of British troops; and that resistance can only draw down upon them terrible loss, and the destruction of their villages and crops.

They had received no such lessons in the previous expeditions. That of Governor Sir Charles M'Carthy had been entirely defeated, and the governor himself killed. Another expedition, in 1867, met with a total failure. Sir Garnet Wolseley, in 1873, marched to Coomassie but, though he burnt the place, he had at once to fall back to the coast. In 1895 Sir Francis Scott led an expedition which, for some reason or other, met with no resistance.

Now Ashanti had been swept from end to end, and fire and sword had destroyed the major part of the villages. Garrisons were to be left, at Coomassie, strong enough to put down any local risings; and the natives had been taught that, small as our army might be in their country, it could at any time be largely augmented, at very short notice. Most of all, they had learned that, even without the assistance of white soldiers, the native troops--whom they had hitherto despised--were their superiors in every respect.

The completion of the railway to Coomassie has enabled troops to be sent up from the coast, in a few hours, to the heart of the country; and the numerous companies formed to work the gold mines will, in themselves, prove a great check to trouble as, no doubt, the miners will, in future, be well armed.

Colonel Willcocks left the headquarters staff a few days after the despatch of his telegram. He rode through a two-mile avenue of troops and friendly natives and, on arriving at Cape Coast, had a magnificent reception. Major C. Burroughs remained in command of Coomassie, with a strong garrison.

A few days later, the rest of the force moved down to the coast. Lisle and Hallett were carried down in hammocks, for both were completely worn out by the hardships of the campaign and, as there was no limit to the numbers of carriers that could be obtained, they gladly acquiesced in the decision of the medical officer that they ought to be carried. Both, indeed, had the seeds of fever in their system and, when they arrived at Cape Coast, were laid up with a sharp attack. As a result they were, like the great portion of the officers who had gone through the campaign, invalided home.

A day after his arrival in London, Lisle was visited by his friend Colonel Houghton, at whose house he had spent most of his leave when he was last in England.

"I saw your name in the paper, yesterday, as among the returned invalids; and thought that I should find you in the hotel where you stayed before."

"I wrote yesterday afternoon to you, sir."

"Ah! Of course, I have not got that letter. And now, how are you?"

"I am a little shaky, sir, but the voyage has done wonders for me. I have no doubt that I shall soon be myself, again."

"You have not seen the last gazette, I suppose?"

"No, sir."

"Well, there was a list of promotions, and I am happy to say that you have got the D.S.O. for your services. I dare say you know that you succeeded to your company, just six months ago?"

"No, I did not know that. I knew that I stood high among the lieutenants, and expected to get it before long; but I am proud, indeed, of the D.S.O."

"To have won the V.C. and the D.S.O. is to attain the two greatest distinctions a soldier can wear.

"Now, you had better come down with me to my place in the country; the air of London is not the best, for a man who has been suffering from African fever."

"I certainly want bracing air, and I shall be only too glad to go home with you; for I feel it is more my home than any other in England."

As soon as Lisle began to recover a little, Colonel Houghton introduced him to his neighbours, who made a good deal of the young soldier. Five years had elapsed, since he had started with the Pioneers for Chitral, and he was twenty-one.

Soon after he went to the colonel's, he was speaking to him of his friend and constant companion in the late campaign; and the colonel at once invited Hallett down. Hallett accepted the invitation, and soon joined them. He had pretty well recovered, and the campaign had knocked all his little laziness and selfishness out of him. He also had received the D.S.O.

"I am sure, Colonel Houghton," he said one day, "that I owe a tremendous lot to Lisle. He was always cheerful, and his unmerciful chaffing kept me alive. I am quite sure I should never have got through that time, when we were lost in the forest, if it hadn't been for him. I was a confirmed grumbler, too; but he never let me indulge my discontent. Altogether you have no idea, Colonel Houghton, how much he did for me."

"Well, you know, Captain Hallett, how much he did for me."

"No, sir," Hallett said, in surprise; "he has often spoken to me of you, and of your kindness to him; but he did not tell me about anything he had done for you."

"Well, he saved my life at the risk of his own. If he has not told you the story, I will."

And he related the manner in which Lisle had won his V.C.

"Why did you not tell me about it, Bullen? It was a splendid thing to do. You did tell me, I remember, how you got the V.C. by helping to get an officer out of the grasp of the Afridis, but you gave no details."

"There was nothing to tell about it, Hallett. I only did what I am sure you would have done, in my case."

"I am by no means sure of that," Hallett said. "I am always slow in making up my mind about anything; and should never have thought of putting a wounded officer on my horse, and sending him off, while I remained to be cut to pieces. I hope I should have stood by him, and been cut down with him; but I am certain that I should not have thought of the other thing, with the Afridis rushing down upon me, only thirty yards away.

"You ought to have let me know about it. You did bully me a great deal, you know; and though it was all for my good, still I think I should have put up with it better, if I had known that you had done such a thing as that."

"I think you put up with it very well, Hallett. Chaffing you, and getting you sometimes into a rage--which was pretended, rather than real--did me a lot of good. I am sure I should have given in, several times, had you not acted as a sort of tonic; and had I not been sure that it did you as much good as it did me."

A month after Hallett's arrival, the colonel said, one morning:

"Good morning, Lisle! I am going out with the hounds, tomorrow. They meet near here. As you are not great riders, I won't press you to go with me but, at least, you will ride with me to the meet. It is sure to be a good gathering, and you will probably meet some nice girls; who will, no doubt, have much greater attractions, for young fellows like you, than a gallop round the country."

"They have no particular attraction for me, sir," Lisle laughed. "It will be time enough for that, in another eight or ten years. It is more in Hallett's line."

"But we shall be chaffed, if we don't ride after the hounds, Colonel," Hallett said.

"Not at all," the colonel replied, "you have a first-rate excuse. You are only just recovering from fever. That would get you no end of commiseration and pity."

"In that case," Lisle said, "I think I should prefer staying at home. I don't feel that I need the least pity, and don't want to get it on false pretences."

"It won't be false pretences," the colonel said. "I have taken care that all the ladies I shall introduce you to should know what you did for me, and how you did it."

"I am sorry to hear it, Colonel. It is really hateful, being regarded as a man who has done something, especially at my age. However, I shall leave Hallett to bear the brunt of it. I know that he is on the lookout for a wife."

"I don't think you know anything of the sort, Lisle. It will be time for that when I get my majority."

"Ah! That is all very well, Hallett; I know you took a good half-hour dressing your hair, previous to that dinner party last week."

"It has to be brushed. It was nearly all cut off, when we were in Cape Coast, and one doesn't want to go out looking like a fretful porcupine."

So, laughing and joking, they started the next morning. There was, as the colonel had predicted, a large meet. Many ladies came on horseback, and others in carriages. The two young officers were soon engaged, chatting and laughing, with the latter.

"Do you mean to say that you are not going to ride, Captain Bullen?" one of the ladies on horseback said.

"In the first place, Miss Merton, I am an infantry officer and, except for a few weeks when I was on the staff of Colonel Lockhart, I have never done any riding. In the second place, I am forbidden to take horse exercise, at present. Moreover, although no doubt you will despise me for the confession, I dislike altogether the idea of a hundred men on horseback, and forty or fifty dogs, all chasing one unfortunate animal."

"But the unfortunate animal is a poacher of the worst kind."

"Very well, then, I should shoot him, as a poacher. Why should a hundred horsemen engage in hunting the poor brute down? Bad horseman as I am, I should not mind taking part in a cavalry charge; but hunting is not at all to my taste."

"You like shooting, Captain Bullen?"

"I like shooting, when there is something to be shot; in the first place, a dangerous animal, and in the second, an animal that is able to show fight. I have several times taken part in tiger hunts, and felt myself justified in doing so, because the animals had made themselves a scourge to unarmed villagers."

"I am afraid that you are a sort of Don Quixote," the girl laughed.

"Not quite that, Miss Merton; though I own I admire the good knight, greatly. We are going to move off, now, to the covert that has to be drawn; and I know I shall shock you, when I say that I sincerely hope that nothing will be found there."

The whole party then moved off, and the hounds were put into a covert. Five minutes later, a whimper was heard. It soon spread into a chorus, and then a fox dashed out from the opposite side; followed, in a couple of minutes, by the whole pack.

"Well, that is fun, is it not, Captain Bullen?" said a girl, to whom he was talking, in one of the carriages.

"It is a pretty sight," he said, "and if the fox always got away, I should like it. As it is, I say honestly that I don't."

The meet now broke up, and the carriages dispersed. Hallett and Lisle accepted an invitation to lunch with the ladies to whom they were talking. Two hours later, Lisle was on the point of leaving, when a groom rode up at full speed.

"Is Captain Bullen here?" he asked.

With a presentiment of evil, Lisle went out.

"The colonel has had a bad accident, sir. He was brought in, half an hour ago, by the servants. I understand that he asked for you; and three of us at once rode off, in different directions, to find you."

Lisle called Hallett and, in five minutes, they were mounted and dashed off. As they entered the house, they were met by the surgeon.

"Is he badly hurt'?" Lisle asked, anxiously.

"I fear that he is hurt