Charlie now finds himself actually in command—ay, and in something more than a skirmish—something that begins to look uncommonly like a general action. Waving the men on with his sword he dashes into the ravine, and in another instant is hand-to-hand with the enemy. What a moment of noise, smoke, and confusion it is! Crashing blows, fearful oaths, the Kaffir war-cry, and the soldiers’ death-groan mingle in the very discord of hell. A wounded Kaffir seizes Charlie by the legs, and a “Light-Bob” runs the savage through the body, the ghastly weapon flashing out between the Kaffir’s ribs.
“You’ve got it now, you black beggar!” says the soldier, as he coolly wipes his dripping bayonet on a tuft of burnt-up grass. While yet he speaks he is writhing in his death-pang, his jaws transfixed by a quivering assagai. A Kaffir chief, of athletic frame and sinewy proportions, distinguished by the grotesque character of his arms and his tiger-skin kaross, springs at the young lancer like a wild-cat. The boy’s sword gleams through that dusky body even in mid-air.
“Well done, blue ’un!” shout the men, and again there is a wild hurrah! The young one never felt like this before.
Hand-to-hand the savages have been beaten from their defences, and they are in full retreat. One little band has forced the ravine, and gained the opposite bank. With a thrilling cheer they scale its rugged surface, Charlie waving his sword and leading them gallantly on. The old privates swear he is a good ’un. “Forward, lads! Hurrah! for blue ’un!”
The boy has all but reached the brink; his hand is stretched to grasp a bush that overhangs the steep, but his step totters, his limbs collapse—down, down he goes, rolling over and over amongst the brushwood, and the blue lancer uniform lies a tumbled heap at the bottom of the ravine, whilst the cheer of the pursuing “Light-Bobs” dies fainter and fainter on the sultry air as the chase rolls farther and farther into the desert fastnesses of Kaffirland.
[CHAPTER XII]
CAMPAIGNING AT HOME
THE SOLDIER IN PEACE—THE LION AND THE LAMB—“THE GIRLS WE LEAVE BEHIND US”—A PLAIN QUESTION—THE STRONG MAN’S STRUGGLE—FATHERLY KINDNESS—THE “PEACE AND PLENTY”—A LADY-KILLER’S PROJECTS—WAKING THOUGHTS