"Graeme, you don't, you can't mean that," from Royle. "Sir," turning to the smiling Bumps, "I can assure you this is directly contrary to my teaching."
"And mine too, Colonel."
"I meant yours, sir. Why, it was only the other day, after your last lecture on cavalry, that I had all my officers up, and impressed upon them how right you were when you said—said——" Here Royle was brought to a standstill, memory failing him.
"Say no more, Colonel, I believe you; but there are some people too clever to learn. Ah, they're off! Sit down here, Graeme, and watch. I think, possibly, in the next few minutes you may learn something, or the experience of forty-five years goes for nothing."
"A mule that had been through all the wars of Frederick still remained a mule," muttered Graeme, and, sitting down, lighted a cigarette and closed his eyes.
That disaster was imminent he knew well, but now cared nothing. Let Bumps have his silly triumph if he liked. His own plan had been right, of that he was intuitively certain, and that was all that mattered to him; it would fail, of course, as it was, but that was to be expected, Porky being in charge.
Sitting there, he could foretell, knowing that officer, what was in his mind as he rode along, almost to the words he was now uttering to Graves galloping beside him.
"Hanged if I get a telling off," he was saying, "for Graeme or anyone else; my plan's much sounder, and will pull him through, and then he'll be glad he didn't run his own rotten scheme. Look ye, Graves, we'll make for the centre of the ridge now, straight away, that'll entice those blokes away from the pass, and then we'll turn and be through it like winking. It's the same as his plan, only the other way round."
In vain did Graves, who possessed intelligence, protest. Porky was firm, and carried out his scheme, or rather the first part of it, for in the last he was not so successful.
On they headed for the ridge, Wicklow watching them through his glasses as they came, and for a moment doubt arose in his mind, soon quelled, however, for his Staff College teaching told him that cavalry do not attempt the crossing of precipitous mountains. "It's a transparent ruse," he reflected, "to draw me away from the passes, their only hope," and he called up his reserves till each entrance was guarded by close on four hundred men.