“What are we going to do next, Rod?” asked Josh, when they had stood and watched these events taking place for some little time.
“We’ll have to hold off until they get things in ship-shape again,” replied the other; “you see there are the wounded to attend to, the dead to gather and bury, it may be, as well as a lot of other matters to be looked after. They’ll be in no hurry to chase after the enemy, I imagine. Their one object was to carry this crossing, and that they’ve done.”
“But at a terrible cost to them,” sighed Hanky Panky, as he saw the injured being carried to a central point, where doubtless the field surgeons would be on hand, ready to give them first attention; besides, there had been scores upon scores carried down the river whose fate could only be guessed at.
“That’s always what war means, I’m afraid,” remarked Rod, not that he himself was getting hardened by seeing such sights, but because he had a broader vision than Hanky Panky, and could anticipate what would follow when two hostile forces came in contact at close quarters.
“If that was Andre’s regiment that went in at the first,” observed Josh gloomily, “I’m mighty much afraid we’re going to have all our trouble for our pains; because they were almost wiped out. Andre is pretty sure to have been among those who were in the water when that battery got in its heavy work, and–well, the current carried away many a gallant fellow, never to give him up again.”
“Oh! it’s hardly as bad as that, Josh,” remonstrated Rod; “a good many managed to get back again, either wounded or whole. If we’re lucky we may find Andre among that lot. We’ll hope to, anyway; and our business will then soon be over.”
“Well, for one I hope and pray we’re able to turn our backs on this thing before another sun sets,” said Hanky Panky, with such a sad look on his face that Rod was quite sorry they had been tempted to follow up this adventure.
Still, they had risked their lives in a good cause, and if only that little French woman Jeanne and her family could be provided for in the future, despite the schemings of Jules Baggott, he for one would not feel tempted to complain on account of perils undergone and risks taken.
“Most of the French have crossed over by now, you notice, Rod,” observed Josh, when some time had crept past, and he could hardly restrain his customary impatience any longer.
“And that means you think we should be getting a move on too?” laughed the other, trying to raise the drooping spirits of Hanky Panky by an assumption of levity which truth to tell Rod was himself far from feeling.