Through Three Campaigns: A Story of Chitral, Tirah and Ashanti

by G. A. Henty

The next morning, at eight o'clock, the little committee met. The four young officers gave their evidence, which was put on paper in duplicate and signed by them, a copy being sent to the colonel of Sanders' regiment. In a short time that officer was seen to go into the colonel's tent and, half an hour later, he came out again and went away. A few minutes after he had left, the four officers were summoned.

"I hope," the colonel said, "that we have heard the last of this most unpleasant business. His colonel tells me that this morning, as soon as he turned out, Sanders called upon him and said that he had to go to England, on urgent family business; and that, on his arrival there, he should send in his papers and retire. He gave him leave to go at once, and Sanders disposed of his horse and traps, and started by the eight o'clock train for Calcutta. In these circumstances we have decided, for the credit of both regiments, that the matter shall be held over. If, as is morally certain, he leaves the army, nothing more need be said about it. Of course, if he should return, it will be brought up.

"I should say, however, that there is no chance whatever of that. I beg of you to impress upon the officers of the regiment; which, indeed, I shall myself do at mess, to make no allusion whatever, outside the regiment, to what has occurred. The less said about it, the better. If it were at all known, and got to the ears of the commander-in-chief--and you know how gossip of this kind spreads--both his colonel and myself would get a severe wigging, for not sending in a report of it. In that case a committee would be appointed to go into the whole matter and, as a result, the regiment would probably be sent to the worst possible cantonment they could find for us, and Gordon would be called upon to retire. I will therefore ask you to give me your word that the matter shall not be alluded to, outside the regiment. There is no fear of any of Sanders' regiment hearing anything about it, as none of them were present last night.

"Upon further consideration, I think that it would be better to summon all the officers of the regiment, at once, and to impress upon them the necessity for keeping silence on the matter."

Five minutes later the officers' call sounded and, when all were assembled in the anteroom, the colonel repeated to them what he had said to Lisle and his companions; and obtained an undertaking from them, individually, that they would maintain an absolute silence on the matter.

The affair greatly added to the estimation in which Lisle was held in the regiment. His quickness in detecting the swindle, and the steps he had taken to obtain proof of his suspicions, showed that he possessed other qualities besides pluck and determination.

It is to be feared that some, at least, of the married officers either did not regard the promise of silence as affecting their wives, or had told them what had taken place before they were requested to abstain from alluding to it; for three or four of the ladies made sly allusions, when talking to Lisle, which showed that they were cognizant of what had taken place.

"Well, Mr. Bullen," one of them said, "I have up till now regarded you as little more than a boy, in spite of your pluck in going up as a native soldier to Chitral. Now I shall hold you in much higher respect, and shall regard you as a young man with an exceptionally sharp eye, and exceptionally keen discernment."

"I don't think I quite understand you, Mrs. Merritt," Lisle said innocently.

"It is all very well for you to put on that air of ignorance. You don't suppose that married men can keep matters like this from their wives? I can tell you we all admire, very much, the manner in which you saved Lieutenant Gordon from having to leave the service. He is a favourite with us all and, though he seems to have made a great fool of himself, we should all be sorry if he had had to leave us."