Gil the Gunner, George Manville Fenn [fun books to read for adults txt] 📗

The moment before I was humble and pleading, but these words, this tone of doubt, this demand for an oath drove humility to the winds, and I felt as if I would die sooner than degrade myself as he wished.

“I will not,” I cried hotly. “I’ll swear nothing. I don’t want you to believe me. I thought you were a gentleman, and my friend.”

“Then tell me as a brother-officer that I am really wrong.”

“I tell you that you are a coward and blind,” I cried; “and sooner than humble myself, I’d do as I said, and die.”

“Gil,” he said hoarsely, “you are right. I can’t go down on my knees to you here, but I do believe you, lad. I was blind and miserable, and disappointment made me doubt you more and more. Forgive me, lad; I own it. You couldn’t have been such a miserable hound.”

I wanted to speak, but the words would not come for long enough. When they did, I could only whisper huskily—

“May I go to my guns?”

He nodded, for he could not speak either for a time.

“Like this?” I said, making a sign towards my uniform.

“Anyhow, as long as it is the lad I believed in from the first,” he half whispered; and then, in quite his old tone, “but we must ride and fire as we never rode and fired before. Now then, come and have a few words with the men.”

I went with him, and he spoke three words, the men answering with a cheer, and I saw Dick Dobbs raise the trumpet, and Sergeant Craig take a run toward his horse, while Denny seemed to try and catch my eye.

Then Haynes and Danby came up, and both shook hands, or, rather, asked me to shake hands with them, in a deprecating way, and soon after, as if it were once more a dream, I was in the saddle by the guns, listening to my father’s advice to Brace. He was to try and hold the rajah’s people engaged with the help of the cavalry, harassing them till the infantry could come up, but he was not to risk losing the guns.

Just then, still in the costume of an ordinary budmash, but with his face washed clear of his black disguise, Mr Brooke rode up, and asked leave to join the advance.

“Why?” said my father, abruptly.

“I know every inch of the country for miles round, and I can land them close up to the Residency by the forest gate at the back,” said Mr Brooke, earnestly. “Besides, I should like to make a dash in and tell the poor shivering creatures I have brought them help.”

“Go,” said my father, abruptly; and a minute later the dust was rising, the lance-points glittering, and the wheels of the guns and limbers were giving forth their peculiar dull, clattering rattle as we advanced at a trot across the burning plain.

This pace was soon reduced to a walk, of necessity, so as to have the horses as fresh as possible when we went into action, and after a time the lancer captain reined back and joined Brace and Haynes, who were riding close by me, and Mr Brooke rode to us at a sign from Brace.

“Now, gentlemen,” said the latter, “the question is, how our attack is to be made. Of course we can say nothing decisive till we find out whether the rajah’s troops are inside or outside the town.”

“May I speak?” said Brooke.

“Of course. You know the place,” replied Brace.

“I am not a soldier, but I have had a severe lesson in fighting lately, and it seems to me that the only course open for you is to approach the town gates, or one of them, without letting your approach be seen, and then make a bold dash right into the little quarter defended by the Europeans.”

“You forget that we are not infantry, sir,” said Brace. “We cannot fight our way through streets where every window and roof would be manned by mutineers. We should be all shot down, or in hopeless confusion before we were half-way there.”

Brooke smiled.

“I know the place, sir,” he said. “It is a walled and fortified city with gates, and the European quarter, where we have been besieged, is surrounded by open gardens, and there are wide roads from the north-west gate. You will find no enemy in the plain; they will have marched in by the north-east gate, the nearest to here. I can take you round unseen to the north-west, where, by a sudden dash of the lancers, the gate could be surprised, and they could charge right down the open road, followed by you and your guns right up to the Residency entrenchments, and obtain admittance with the guns before the scoundrels had recovered from their surprise. Of course they would come on again by hundreds or thousands; but your well-served guns can hold them at bay till the colonel comes up with his men.”

Brace remained thoughtful for a few minutes.

“This is quite opposed to the colonel’s ideas,” he said at last; “but it certainly sounds feasible, if we can pass the gate, and the road is open for the horse to charge.”

“I guarantee that,” said Mr Brooke; “and if the manoeuvre is executed with spirit, it cannot fail.”

“Then it cannot fail,” said Brace, with a smile. “What do you say, sir?” he continued, appealing to the lancer captain.

“I say it is the wisest thing to do, always supposing the enemy is not outside. Then we ought to try to harass him only, and keep him engaged.”

“But the rajah is clever enough to find out our weakness, and we shall be driven back further and further, till we can do comparatively little, I am afraid, but encourage our friends by the sound of our guns. The surprise is the plan—if it can be carried out. We will try.”

Very little more was said as we advanced, keeping a bright look-out forward for cavalry, who would gallop back and announce our approach. Of people on foot we had no fear, for we could reach Nussoor long before them; and at last the broad track in the dusty plain left by the rajah’s force was quitted, Mr Brooke leading us off at an angle, and making for higher ground with patches of forest trees.

Among these he made his way till, at the densest part, he pointed south, and announced that we were passing the city, which lay in a hollow about a mile away.

But as he spoke, there was a sudden burst of firing, and, thrilled by this, we increased our pace as fast as the bad ground would allow, till we reached the edge of the open, park-like ground, where a halt was called, and the officers advanced cautiously to an eminence, where we dismounted and peered down to where, in a bowl-like depression a mile away, lay, with its beautiful white marble mosque and dome-shaped tombs of former kings, the city of Nussoor. Wall, gates, minarets, gardens with their trees both inside and outside the walls, all were before us as on a map; while, half a mile before us, a white, dusty-looking road wound across the plain toward a great gate.

We were now on the opposite side to that by which Ny Deen would have entered with his troops; and as the smoke hung more heavily over the side of the town nearest to us, and the firing grew louder, we did not need Mr Brooke’s words to tell us that a fierce attack was going on against the brave handful of Europeans who were making a desperate endeavour to hold their own, in the hope that help might come; if not, to die fighting, and not trust to the cruel mercies of the mutineers.

“We are still in time,” said Mr Brooke, hoarsely. “See, I can lead you round there by those trees, so that you can reach the road half a mile from the gate. Then a score of your swiftest men could dash up to the gate and hold it till the rest come up, but the place looks so utterly unoccupied that I feel sure the attention of all is upon the fight going on in the European quarter, and a bold dash will take you in.”

“Yes,” said Brace, decisively; “we’ll try it.”

“If I go down,” said Brooke, “for I shall go with the first men—take the broad road off to the left the moment you are through the gate. It is clear and good, and there will be nothing but an earthwork, with some guns planted by the enemy to play upon the houses. That is so low, that it will not stop you. If it is too high, you can pass it by going into the gardens to the right.”

“You hear, Captain,” said Brace; “and you will select twenty men for the first advance.”

“Yes,” he replied.

The order was given to lower the lance-points, and we turned off to the right, and, following Brooke’s guidance, the twenty selected men led the advance, keeping well under cover till the dusty road was reached, both cavalry and artillery advancing as nearly in line as the rough ground would allow; then, as we faced to the left, and formed a column, the little troop went off at a trot, then at a gallop, and then raced for the gate, raising a cloud of dust sufficiently thick to hide our advance, the lancers first, four abreast, the guns last, at such a headlong gallop that the half-mile seemed nothing.

In the midst of the wild excitement, the firing ahead sounded louder, and there were yells and shrieks which literally fired my blood; then I heard a few scattered shots and some yelling close at hand, which meant the lancers riding down the feeble opposition at the gate, which we seemed to reach a few moments later; and as we wheeled slightly to the left, along we tore down a wide, open road. Next there was a leaping and bounding of the guns and limbers over the low earthwork, and we were on our way again at a gallop toward a cloud of smoke, and the next minute the clash of arms, the yelling of men, the shouts and cheers of our lancers as they tore on, sweeping all before them, rang in my ears, while my brain swam in the giddiness produced by excitement. Amidst it all the trumpet sounded a halt, the men leaped from horse and limber, the guns were at once unhooked, and loaded with grape where we stood, close up to some walls and barricades, from beyond which came shouts and cheers which almost maddened us. Then, dominating these sounds, there came the beat of hoofs, as the lancers rode back, after forcing their charge as far they could, passed between the guns, and faced round, to form up behind us ready for a fresh charge on the wave of fierce enemies, beaten back for the moment, but now recoiling and coming back to the attack on the barricade, behind which our fellow-countrymen had been desperately trying to hold their own.

I had a full view of this huge wave of savage humanity—inhumanity, I ought to say—as they came on at a rush, with eyes and weapons gleaming, their wildest passions roused, one vast mob of fighting men, a hundred yards—eighty—fifty yards away, when Brace’s order rang out, heard above the roar as of a storm raging on a rocky coast.

Then thud, and like the slow pulse-beats of doom, thud—thud—each gun spoke out from our little line, and at every flash there was a white puff of smoke, which slowly rose, and we saw beneath the vapour, how at each discharge of grape an open lane was torn through the savage crowd.

But these closed up, and they still came on, those behind forcing those in front, till they were within twenty yards.

Never had those guns been served with such rapidity before, nor