The latest case is that of Lieutenant Dartnell, of the Regiment of Frontiersmen, who lost his life and won the V.C. at the same time, by a singularly devoted action in East Africa. Himself wounded, Lieutenant Dartnell returned to a body of wounded men to endeavour to save them from the advancing black troops of the enemy. His dead body was found surrounded by a number of the enemy whom he had slain, showing that he had sold his life dearly when it came to the last.
Lieutenant Dartnell was a well-known actor in Australia and a great public favourite. He is said to be the first actor who has been awarded the supreme honour for valour.
SAID AN AUSTRALIAN OFFICER
[CHAPTER XVIII]
SAID AN AUSTRALIAN OFFICER
"Fraternizing with the Indians!" chuckled the Australian officer, as he laid down a London evening paper which had been expressing satisfaction at the fact that Australasians and Indians were fighting side by side before Sari Bair. "The last fraternizing I saw was being done by a young officer of the A.S.C. He was brandishing something that looked like a pick handle (of course he never used it), and demanding a lost transport mule in a fervid mixture of Arabic, Turkish, and Never-Never talk from the Back of Nowhere.
"You see, these Indians are fatalists to a man; they think that if they are to be hit, they must be, and there's an end of it. The consequence is, they take no care of themselves; and that wouldn't matter so much, if they'd only take reasonable care of the mules. Mules are precious, but they take their mules anywhere, and lose them. Hence the fraternizing. 'Where's my mule, son of Belial?' this chap was shouting; and the other things he was saying made even a little middie look shocked.