“All right, old fellow; we’ll set you up with anything we’ve got,” said Bracy.
“Bless you, my children!” cried the young officer. “Bless you! Never mind the dramatic business. Oh, I say, we are all glad you’ve come.”
“You’ve been in a tight corner, then?”
“Tight? We’ve lost a third of our number, and were beginning to think the Government was going to let us be quite wiped off the slate. Here, I feel like a schoolboy again, and want to cheer.”
“All right; cheer, then,” cried Bracy, smiling, and clapping the speaker on the shoulder as if he had known him for years.
“No; hoarse as a crow now, and I want my breath to talk. I say, we have been sharp set. We began to feel like the talking parrot who was plucked by the monkey, ready to say, ‘Oh, we have been having such a time!’ Those Dwats are beggars to fight.”
“We’ve found that out—that is, when they can take you at a disadvantage,” said Roberts.
“Ah, that’s their idea of manoeuvring,” said Drummond. “They can tight, though. We must have killed hundreds, but they come on all the same. There were thousands of them all about the hills here yesterday.”
“But where are they now?” asked Bracy.
“They melted away like snow last night and this morning, just when we were expecting an assault on the old fort yonder, which we thought would be final.”