A Dog with a Bad Name Part 33

"Who--the fellow Julius she talks about?" asked the major, beginning to feel very warm.

"The fellow Julius! Why, Julius is the dog!"

The major rose from his seat in agitation, and stood before his friend.

"Forrester," said he solemnly, "as soon as I see the joke I'll laugh.

Meanwhile tell me this. Who in the name of mystery is it who feels his anomalous position at Wildtree, the man or the dog?"

Captain Forrester held gallantly on to his chair to prevent falling off; and the native without, hearing his shouts, looked in at the door to see what the sahib wanted.

"My dear fellow," said he at last, "I begin to think I know more than you. Can't you see this daughter of yours is decidedly interested in this young _protege_ of her uncle?"

"Most decidedly I see that."

"And that in order to throw dust in your fatherly old eyes, she makes a great gush about the dog Julius, and says hardly a word about the master, whose name does not appear."

Major Atherton took up the letter again and glanced through it, and a light began to break on his puzzled countenance.

"Then," said he, "the fellow who's handsome and clever and a perfect darling is--"

"Is the bow-wow. And the fellow who's hunted-looking and not allowed in the drawing-room is his master."

Major Atherton resumed his chair, and once more planted his feet on the table.

"That is a way of putting it, certainly. If so, it's a relief."

"My dear boy, keep your eye on that librarian, or he may change places with his dog in double-quick time."

The major laughed, and a pause ensued. Then Forrester said--

"Two or three days more, and we ought to be in Kandahar."

"We are to have a stiff brush or two before we get there," said the major; "any hour now may bring us to close quarters."

There was another pause. Captain Forrester fidgeted about uneasily, and presently said--

"It's possible, old man, only one of us may get through. If I am the one who is left behind, will you promise me something?"

"You know I will."

"That boy of mine, Atherton, is somewhere, I'm as sure of it as that I'm sitting here. He's vanished. My letters to Grangerham cannot all have miscarried, and they certainly have none of them been answered. My mother-in-law, as I told you, died in the south of England. The boy may have been with her, or left behind in Grangerham, or he may be anywhere.

I told you of the letter I had from the school?"

"Yes; he had had an accident and gone home damaged--crippled, in fact."

"Yes," said Captain Forrester, with a groan, "crippled--and perhaps left without a friend."

"You want me to promise to find him if you are not there to do it, and be a father to him. You needn't ask it, old man, for I promise."

"I've nothing to leave him," said Captain Forrester, "except my sword and this watch--"

"And the good name of a gallant soldier. I will, if it is left to me to do it, take the boy all three."

"Thanks, Atherton. You know that I would do the same by you, old fellow."

"You may have the chance. That girl of mine, you know," added the major, with a tremble in his voice, "would have what little I have saved, which is not much. She's a good girl, but she would need a protector if I was not there."

"She shall have it," said his friend.

"I'm not sure that she's happy at Wildtree," continued the father, with a smile, "despite the dog and his master. Rimbolt's a bookworm, and doesn't see what goes on under his nose, and her aunt, as she says, is an animated extinguisher. It always puzzled me how Rimbolt came to marry Charlotte Halgrove."

"Halgrove? Was she the sister of your old college friend?"

"Yes. Rimbolt, Halgrove, and I were inseparable when we were at Oxford.

Did I ever tell you of our walking tour in the Lakes? We ruled a bee- line across the map with a ruler and walked along it, neck or nothing.

Of course you know about it. We've sobered down since then. Rimbolt married Halgrove's sister, and I married Rimbolt's. I had no sister, so Halgrove remained a bachelor."

"What became of him?"

"I fancy he made a mess of it, poor fellow. He went in for finance, and it was too much for him. Not that he lost his money; but he became a little too smart. He dropped a hundred or two of mine, and a good deal more of Rimbolt's--but he could spare it. The last I heard of him was about twelve years ago. He had a partner called Jeffreys; a stupid honest sort of fellow who believed in him. I had a newspaper sent me with an account of an inquest on poor Jeffreys, who had gone out of his mind after some heavy losses. There was no special reason to connect Halgrove with the losses, except that Jeffreys would never have dreamed of speculating if he hadn't been led on. And it's only fair to Halgrove to say that after the event he offered to take charge of Jeffreys' boy, at that time eight years old. That shows there was some good in him."

"Unless," suggested Captain Forrester, "there was some money along with the boy."

"Well, I dare say if he's alive still, Rimbolt will know something of him; so I may come across him yet," said the major; and there the conversation ended.

Major Atherton's prophecy of a brush with the enemy was not long in being fulfilled.

Early next day the expeditionary force was ordered forward, the cavalry regiment in which the two friends were officers being sent ahead to reconnoitre and clear the pa.s.ses.

The march lay for some distance along a rocky valley, almost desolate of habitations, and at parts so c.u.mbered with rocks and stones as to be scarcely pa.s.sable by the horses, still less by the artillery, which struggled forward in front of the main body. The rocks on the right bank towered to a vast height, breaking here and there into a gorge which admitted some mountain stream down into the river below, and less frequently falling back to make way for a wild saddle-back pa.s.s into the plains above.

Along such a course every step was perilous, for the enemy had already been reported as hovering at the back of these ugly rocks, and might show their teeth at any moment.

For an hour or two, however, the march continued uninterrupted. The few scattered Afghans who had appeared for a moment on the heights above had fallen back after exchanging shots, with no attempt at serious resistance. The main body had been halted in the valley, awaiting the return of the scouts. The horses had been unharnessed from the guns, and the officers were s.n.a.t.c.hing a hurried meal, when Captain Forrester at the head of a few troopers scampered into the lines. The news instantly spread that the enemy had been seen ahead, and was even then being chased by the cavalry up one of the defiles to the right.

Instantly, and without even waiting for the word of command, every man was in his place ready to go on. The guns, with Captain Forrester's troop as escort, dashed forward to hold the defile; while the main body, divided into two divisions--one to follow the guns, the other to reach the plain above by a nearer pa.s.s--started forward into action.

The cavalry, meanwhile, with Major Atherton at their head, were already engaged in a hot scrimmage.

Following their usual tactics, the Afghans, after exchanging shots at the entrance of the pa.s.s, had turned tail and dashed through the defile, with the English at their heels. Then, suddenly turning as they reached the plain beyond, they faced round on their pursuers, not yet clear of the rocky gorge. In the present instance, however, when within about a hundred yards of the head of the column, they wheeled round again, and once more bolted into the open.

A stern chase ensued over the rough broken ground, the enemy now and then making a show of halting, but as often giving way and tempting the cavalry farther out into the plain.

The Afghans numbered only about two hundred hors.e.m.e.n, but it was quite evident from their tactics that they had a much larger body in reserve, and Major Atherton was decidedly perplexed as to what he should do. For if he pursued them too far, he might be cut off from his own men; if, on the other hand, he made a dash and rode them down before they could get clear, he might cut them off from their main body, and so clip the enemy's wings.

The enemy settled the question for him. Just as he was looking round for the first sign of Forrester and the guns in the pa.s.s, the plain suddenly swarmed with Afghans. From every quarter they bore down on him, horse and foot, and even guns, seeming almost to spring, like the teeth of Cadmus, from the earth.

It was no time for hesitation or doubt. Retreat was out of the question. Equally hopeless was it to warn the troops who were coming up. There was nothing for it but to stand at bay till the main body came up, and then, if they were left to do it, fight their way out and join forces.