“A really gallant and modest lad, General,” he said, feelingly. “I could not be prouder of him had he been my own son.”
When morning dawned on the following day the hutted town was all bustle and hurry, and very soon the bridge over the river resounded to the tramp of many feet, for the punitive army was on the march. The last stage of this short and historic campaign had commenced.
Chapter Twenty.
The Destruction of Kumasi.
Excitement rose high early that morning as the main body of the British force crossed the bridge over the Prahsu and began their invasion of Ashanti proper, for stern fighting was expected. It was known now that the protectorate on the coast side of the river was freed of all enemies, so effective had been the operations carried out by Sir Garnet, and in addition, thanks to the information supplied by Dick and his two men, and by Lord Gifford, one of the most valuable officers in this campaign, it was ascertained for certain that the road on the Ashanti side, as far as a range of hills known as the Adansi range, was also entirely clear. Beyond that the enemy lurked, while there were rumours that large bodies were operating on the flanks, prepared to close in on us.
Not a snap of the fingers did our gallant fellows care for this news. They itched to be at Kumasi, and in their hearts all had registered a vow to strike hard in the interests of mercy. For even the men who had only recently landed, and who had marched directly up-country, had seen sufficient to convince them that it was high time that King Koffee and his barbarians were subjugated. On every road the Ashantis had left their sacrifices, wretched slaves done to death with horrible mutilations, or lashed to trees and left there to die like those two poor fellows at Kumasi. And so every man pressed forward eagerly, keen to reach Kumasi and punish these miscreants, and then eager to return to the coast again, for, despite quinine every morning, and the most rigid adherence to special rules to ward off the fever, that enemy already had a grip of the attacking force.
Dick and his little band, accompanied by Jack Emmett and Johnnie, and with a naval officer in addition, marched in the very centre of the road, wide awake, and keenly searching every bush and every likely bit of cover. As they advanced and the days passed they joined with the troops in many little skirmishes in which they drove the enemy back. At last, at a place known as Amoaful, they gained information that the Ashantis were in full force and sent back the news. Indeed, from tidings which they and Lord Gifford had gathered, there were at least twenty thousand Ashantis barring the path.
“We shall see fighting, chief,” said one of the men whom Dick had rescued. “These Ashantis have chosen well, for look at the bush. We have been crossing land which is more or less open. But here it is very dense, and though there are many paths through it they are hard to follow. If we beat them now they are conquered altogether.”