“Doing finely considering, thanks! Look at these chaps. They’re as fond of horse-play as a lot of kids.”
It was certainly an amusing scene, and though the merest clowning, even this kind of fooling serves to keep men in good spirits and temper.
The corporal, Thompson, who had carried the wounded Dorricot out of the fight, stood 6 feet 4½ inches in his stockings, and was perhaps the biggest man in the Delhi force. The men were sitting about in groups playing practical jokes, and Thompson caught hold of Karbir Burathoki, the smallest Gurkha there, a lad under five feet high, and led him to an open space within sight of the others. He there offered to teach the Gurkha how to box, and Karbir quickly entered into the joke. Both pulled off their jackets, and the Gurkha’s face was entirely hidden by his grin. The difference in build between the two men was too much for the spectators, who shouted and yelled—“Go it, little ’un!” “Jump up and ’it ’im in the face!” “Fetch a step-ladder!” “Now, corpril, go on your knees and give ’im a chanst!”
After a lot of preliminary feinting and puffing and blowing and striking high above the Gurkha’s head, the giant began to retire backwards, Karbir following amidst roars of laughter, the Nepalese spectators being quite as delighted as their English comrades.
At length Thompson caught hold of the little man and held him in the air, kicking and shrieking in pretended wrath. As the corporal put the little Himalayan down, he laughingly remarked: “Na, Johnny, tha con haud me up like if tha wants thee revenge.”
The Gurkha examined him from head to foot.
“Hould the spalpeen up, Johnny, ye scutt!” advised an Irish corporal. To the astonishment of all, the little man calmly proceeded to place the giant on his back like a sack of potatoes. Thompson offered no objection, and Karbir was soon staggering from one group of laughing spectators to another. Suddenly upsetting the rifleman full length on the ground, he sat on his chest and proceeded to light his pipe, whereupon the onlookers shrieked. Thompson arose, tossing the Gurkha from his perch, and the two strolled back arm in arm, attempting to keep step, and quarrelling every few yards as to whose pace was at fault.
Reid had come behind the ensign, and was looking on with twinkling eyes. Noting that Ted appeared astonished at Karbir’s strength, he observed: “They’re terribly strong are Gurkhas in the back, loins, and legs.”
When they had settled down again one of the Nepalese observed:
“This war will soon be over. Jung Bahadur is going to march down to Lucknow with his army.”