The champagne finished, the sergeant went to work, and did not desist till he had secured a good bundle of spoil, amongst which was a magnificent gold watch.
Jack gave a man of the Rifles half-a-sovereign for a splendid fur-lined coat and pair of high boots, and later on he picked up a Hussar officer’s jacket which had been thrown down in the road. The latter he gave to Larry for a couple of shirts which he sadly needed, and then he sat down to watch the fun. In an hour’s time nothing was left of the booty except broken boxes and empty hampers.
While they were still halting a staff-officer came riding along, and seeing a number of the 8th Hussars, asked a man if he knew which was the trumpeter who had ridden up to Lord Raglan in the lane. Larry was pointed out to him, when he said, ‘There was a trumpeter of the 17th with you. I want him too.’
‘Come on, Jack,’ said Larry dolefully; ‘we’re in for it. I thought this bit of luck was too good to last.’
The two trumpeters, feeling horribly nervous and guilty, marched behind the staff-officer up towards Mackenzie’s Farm, where Lord Raglan was. They found the old Peninsular veteran smiling graciously as he talked to a number of officers, among whom were Larry’s colonel and Lord Cardigan.
Jack and Larry saluted, when Lord Raglan said to the latter in his kind tones, ‘Colonel Powell tells me it was you who first discovered the Russian convoy.’
‘Shure, yer lordship, it was as much Jack Blair here, of the 17th, as me.’
‘Tell us the circumstances,’ said Lord Raglan; and Larry, in a rich brogue and in a fashion which made several officers hide their mouths behind their hands, gave an account of their proceedings.
Lord Raglan did not smile; but when Larry had finished he said, ‘How long have you been in the service, O’Callaghan?’
‘Four years, me lord, and me father was trumpet-major of the 8th before me, and his father sarved in the Peninsula under the Iron Dook.’