He did not add “to make up for poor Gubbins’s deficiency in that respect,” but that was what he meant, and so the sergeant understood him.
“Let me see,” he said, on rejoining his company; “his servant would be the best man. Dodd! Has any one seen Dodd?”
“He was killed, sergeant, just when the gun was taken.”
“Ah, yes, so he was. Who to send? No, Sims, my lad; it would not do to have both idiots.”
“I saw Mr Strachan last, from all I can make out,” said another man; “send me, sergeant.”
“Ah, yes, Davis, you will do. Where was it though?”
“It was in the nullah, sergeant. One of the Johnnies got past my bayonet, and tried to wrestle, but I got my rifle at the port, and pushed it forward into his face, damaging the sights a little and knocking him down. And at that moment another of them jumped on my shoulders from a rock above, sending me sprawling on top of the chap I had just floored. I wriggled round and saw t’other with his spear up a couple of feet over my neck, when he tumbled over, and there was Mr Strachan, with his sword well into the Johnny’s stomach. I jumped up, and had no time to thank him, or see where he went. We was too busy.”
“All right, you go at once with Gubbins to Mr Green; he is speaking to the major, yonder. And hark! both of you. If you see an Arab lying like dead, with a weapon of any sort in his hand, run your bayonet through him first, and ask him if he is alive afterwards, for we have lost too many men as it is, and the duties will come heavy. Right-about turn; quick march!”
“Well, good luck go with you,” Major Elmfoot was saying, as Green started. “But I fear that he must be dead, or the ambulance would have found him and brought him in.”
“I wish they would not talk like that,” thought Green, as he went off, followed by his two men. “Everybody speaks of poor Tom in the past tense, from the colonel to Gubbins. I won’t believe that he is dead till I see it; as for the ambulance, they have had plenty of work, and might easily miss him, if he is senseless, and unable to call out.”