“I hope, sir,” said I, as Mick and I raised him up between us into a sitting posture—‘Gyp’ watching the operation with a most intense interest and pleasure, his little black muzzle working, and his short tail wagging all the time—“I do hope you are not seriously hurt, sir?”
Captain Sackville drew a deep breath and shook himself.
“No,” he said—“no bones broken, I think; but, I have got a bullet through one shoulder, I believe, for I can’t lift my right hand—that’s how I came to drop my sword, which I see you have, Bowling.”
“Yes, sir,” said I quietly, glancing to where the Somali chief was doubled up. “I paid off your score against that beggar over there with it, sir.”
“Indeed!” said Captain Sackville, trying to rise up on his legs, but falling back with a groan. “O-o-oh! I think that fellow gave me a bad thrust in the chest just before I dropped it; but, I declare I forgot all about it!”
Mick and I at once tore open his tunic and shirt, when we found a deep wound on his right side, from which the captain must have lost a good deal of blood, his clothing being quite saturated; but the wound was not bleeding much now and we bound it up with our two silk handkerchiefs, winding them round his body, which relieved him so much that he was able to stand up on his feet.
The battle between our forces and the foe was now pretty nigh over, and the combatants had long since swept past us; pursuers and pursued having alike disappeared in the bush surrounding the native town or lost to sight amid the smoking ruins, where some little desultory skirmishing was still going on.
Presently, however, a grand hurrah went up on the left, where the Somalis had made their last stand.
It was a cheer such as British bluejackets alone can give; and then we saw the Union Jack run up on the top of a big bungalow in the centre of the town, the only hut or building that had escaped destruction in the general conflagration.
“It’s all over, my lads,” said Captain Sackville on hearing and seeing this. “I think we had better see about joining the main column, and pick up any stragglers we may see in want of assistance by the way.”