"Would you mind telling us, sir, who captured that gun?" Rawlings burst out very angrily.
"As far as I remember," I told them, "one of 'B.-T.'s' people was first; beat you and Whitmore by a short head."
"There!" they both burst out, looking at each other joyously. "Do you know, sir, that Mr. Rashleigh says it's his, and that he captured it?"
"Stuff and nonsense! That's all my eye! His people were nowhere in sight!"
"Well, he's got it, sir, and the Ringdoves dragged it back, and they say they've got it, and are going to keep it."
"Come and ask Mr. Whitmore," young Ford said; but I told them that they were not to wake him, and not to be blithering idiots waking the whole camp.
"Wait till the morning; no one can take it away to-night."
I knew that if it belonged to anyone it belonged to our Skipper, and that it didn't matter a tuppenny biscuit who claimed it now, for "Old Lest" would have it in the long run.
Our two hours' watch passed without any serious trouble, a few shots occasionally whizzed overhead, that was all, and before daylight the fog lifted a little, as it had done the previous day.
As soon as they could see us, the Chinese made a very half-hearted attack, and the whole brigade had to stand to arms and line the bank; but we had no difficulty in driving them off and keeping them at a respectable distance.