Claverton’s swarthy followers growled considerably at losing their chief, whom, in the short time he had been with them, they had already began to look up to and respect. Lumley, especially, put his discontent into words.
“Always the way,” he grumbled. “Directly you get a fellow you pull well with—off he goes.”
“But, Lumley; you’ll be in command yourself now, don’t you see?”
Lumley evidently didn’t see, for this side of the question now burst upon him with a new light.
“Don’t know. They’re sure to keep me out of it,” he growled, but as if he thought the contingency not an unmixed evil. And the fact was, his late chief thought the same.
So Claverton, with the faithful Sam as body-servant, entered upon his new rank of Field-Captain in “Brathwaite’s Horse,” vice Philip Garnier resigned.