Captain Jinks, Hero Part 23

"But you say these bodies are not all soldiers," said Cleary.

"No, of course not. You see the Mosconians kill any natives they please. Then those who are out at night are killed as a matter of course, and those who won't work for the soldiers naturally have to be put out of the way. It's the only way to enforce discipline. Look at these bodies now."

Corpses were now coming down the river one after another. Each had its attendant swarm of flies, and vultures soared in flocks in the air. The river was yellow with mud, and the air oppressively hot and heavy. Now and then a whiff of putrid air was blown across the deck. The three men watched the bodies drifting past, brainless skulls, eyeless sockets, floating along many of them as if they were swimming on their backs.

"It is really a fine example of the power of civilization," said the stranger. "I don't approve of everything that has been done, by any means. Some of the armies have treated women rather badly, but no English-speaking soldiers have done that. In fact, your army has hardly been up to the average in effectiveness. You and the j.a.ps have been culpably lenient, if you will permit me to say so."

"We are only just starting out on our career as a military nation,"

said Sam. "You must not expect too much of us at first. We'll soon get our hand in. As for the j.a.ps, why they're heathen. They can hardly be expected to behave like Christians. But we were afraid that the war was over and that we should find nothing to do."

"The war over! What an absurdity! I have lived in Porsslania for over thirty years and I ought to know something about it by now. There's an army of at least forty thousand Fencers over there to the northwest and another twenty-five thousand in the northeast. The Tutonians are the only people who understand it. Their first regiments have just arrived, and they are going to do something. They say the Emperor is coming himself, and he will put an end to this state of affairs. He is not a man to stand rebellion. All we can say is that we have made a good beginning. We have laid the whole province waste, and it will be a long time before they forget it."

The journey was hot and tedious; the desolated sh.o.r.e, the corpses and vultures, and an occasional junk with square-rigged sails and high p.o.o.p were the only things upon which to fix the eye. When at last our travelers arrived at the city of Gin-Sin, Sam learned that his regiment had proceeded to the Capital and was in camp there, and it would be impossible for him to leave until the following day. He stopped with Cleary at the princ.i.p.al hotel. The city was in a semi-ruined condition, but life was already beginning to a.s.sume its ordinary course. The narrow streets, hung with banners and lanterns and cabalistic signs, were full of people. Barbers and scribes were plying their trades in the open air, and war was not always in sight. Sam's reputation had preceded him, and he had scarcely gone to his room when he received an invitation from a leading Anglian merchant to dine with him that evening. Cleary was anxious to go too, and it so happened that he had letters of introduction to the gentleman in question. He made his call at once and was duly invited.

There were a dozen or more guests at dinner, all of them men. Indeed, there were few white women left at Gin-Sin. With the exception of Sam and Cleary all the guests were Anglians. There was the consul-general, a little man with a gray beard, a tall, bald-headed, gray-mustached major-general in command of the Anglian forces at Gin-Sin, two distinguished missionaries of many years' experience, several junior officers of the army, and a merchant or two. When dinner was announced they all went in, each taking precedence according to his station. Sam knew nothing of such matters, and was loath to advance until his host forced him to. He found a card with his name on it at the second cover on the right from his host. On his right was the card of a young captain. The place on his left and immediately on the right of the host bore no card, and the consul-general and the major-general both made for it. The former got there first, but the military man, who was twice his size, came into violent collision with him, pushed him away and captured the seat, while the consul-general was obliged to retreat and take the seat on the left of his host. The whole party pretended very hard to have noticed nothing unusual.

"Rather odd performance, eh?" whispered the captain to Sam. "You see how it is. Old Folsom says he takes precedence because he represents the Crown, but the general says that's all rot, for the consul's only a commercial agent and a K.C.Q.X. Now the general is a G.C.Q.X., and he says that gives him precedence. n.o.body can settle it, and so they have to fight it out every time they meet."

"I see," said Sam. "I don't know anything about such things, but I should think that the general was clearly in the right. He could hardly afford to let the army be overridden."

"Quite so," said the captain. "I don't suppose you know these people,"

he added.

"Not one of them, except my friend, Mr. Cleary. We only arrived to-day."

"The general is a good deal of a fellow," said the captain. "I was with him in Egypt and afterward in South Africa."

"Were you, indeed?" cried Sam. "Do tell me all about those wars. They were such great affairs."

"Yes, they were. Not much like this business here. Nothing could stop us in the Sudan, and when we dug up the Mahdi and threw his body away there was nothing left of the rebellion. I believe the best way to settle things here would be to dig up somebody--Confusus, for instance.

If there's anything of that kind to be done our army could do it in style."

"It must be a very effective means of subjugating people," said Sam.

"Yes, and would you believe it? the natives objected to it. They asked us what we would think of it if they dug up our Queen. Just think of it! The impudent n.i.g.g.e.rs! As if there was any similarity in the two cases."

"Outrageous," said Sam.

"And even at home and in Parliament, when our general was sitting in the gallery hearing them discuss how much money they would give him, some of the members protested against our digging the old fraud up. It was a handsome thing for the general to go there and face them down."

"It showed great tact, and I may say--delicacy," said Sam.

"Yes, indeed," said the captain. "That's his strong point."

"But I suppose that the war in South Africa was even greater," said Sam.

"Rather. Why we captured four thousand of those Boers with only forty thousand men. No wonder all Anglia went wild over it. Lord Bobbets went home and they gave him everything they could think of in the way of honors. It was a fitting tribute."

"The war is quite over there now, isn't it?" asked Sam.

"Yes," answered the captain, somewhat drily. "And so is yours in the Cubapines, I understand."

"Yes," said Sam. "I think the Cubapine war and the South African war are about equally over."

"Do you see that lieutenant there between your friend and the parson?"

"Yes."

"He got the Victorious Cross in South Africa. He saved a sergeant's life under fire. You see his cross?"

"How interesting!" said Sam. "He must be a hero."

"That chap with the mustache at the bottom of the table really did more once. He saved three men from drowning in a s.h.i.+pwreck in the Yellow Sea. He's got a medal for it."

[Ill.u.s.tration: WINNERS OF THE CROSS "HE GOT THE VICTORIOUS CROSS IN SOUTH AFRICA"]

"Why doesn't he wear it, too?" asked Sam.

"Civilians never do," said the captain. "It would look rather odd, wouldn't it, for him to wear a life-saving medal? You may be sure he keeps it locked up somewhere and never talks about it."

"It is strange that civilians should be so far behind military men in using their opportunities," said Sam.

"That old fellow with the long beard is Cope, the inventor of the Cope gun. He's a wonder. He was out here in the employ of the Porsslanese Government. Most of their artillery was designed by him. What a useful man he has been to his country! First he invented a projectile that could go through any steel plate then known, and all the navies had to build new steel-clad s.h.i.+ps on a new principle that he had invented to prevent his projectiles from piercing them. Then what does he do, but invent a new projectile that could go through that, and they had to order new guns for it and build new s.h.i.+ps to withstand it. He's done that four times. And he's got a rifle now that will penetrate almost anything. If you put two hundred Porsslanese of the same height in a row it would go through all their heads at five hundred yards. I hope they'll try the experiment before this affair is over."

The major-general had by this time exhausted all possible subjects of conversation with his host and sat silent, and Sam felt obliged to turn his attention to him, and was soon engaged in relating his experience in the Cubapines. Meanwhile Cleary had been conversing with the brave young lieutenant at his side and the reverend gentlemen beyond him.

They had been discussing the slaughter of the Porsslanese, the lieutenant sitting back from the table while his neighbors talked across him.

"I confess," said the Rev. Mr. Parker, "that I am not quite satisfied with our position here. This wholesale killing of non-combatants is revolting to me. Surely it can not be Christian."

"I have had some doubts about it too," said the young man. "I don't mind hitting a man that hits back. I didn't object to the pig-sticking in South Africa, and I believe that man-hunting is the best of all sports; but this killing of people who don't resist, and even smile in a sickly way while you do it and almost thank you--it really does go against me."

"Yes," said Cleary, "perhaps there is something in that."

"Oh, my dear young friend!" cried the clergyman, turning toward the lieutenant, "you don't know what joy it gives me to hear you say that.

I have spoken in this way again and again, and you are the first man I have met who agrees with me. Won't you let your fellow officers know what you think? It will come with so much more force from a military man, and one of your standing as a V.C. Won't you now tell this company that you think we are going too far?"

"Really, Doctor," said the young man, blus.h.i.+ng, "really, I think you exaggerate my importance. It wouldn't do any good. Perhaps I have said a little more to you than I really meant. This champagne has gone to my head a little."

"Just repeat what you said to us. I will get the attention of the table."

"No, Doctor, for G.o.d's sake don't!" cried the lieutenant, laying his right hand on the missionary's arm while he toyed with his cross with the other. "To tell you the truth, I haven't the courage to say it.

They would think I was crazy. I would be put in Coventry. I have no business to make suggestions when a general's present."

Mr. Parker sighed and did not return to the subject.

After dinner Sam was introduced to Canon Gleed, another missionary, who seemed to be on very good terms with himself, and stood rubbing his hands with a benignant smile.

"These are great days, Colonel Jinks," he said. "Great days, indeed, for foreign missions. What would St. John have said on the island of Patmos if he could have cabled for half-a-dozen armies and half-a-dozen fleets, and got them too? He would have made short work of his jailers. As he looks down upon us to-night, how his soul must rejoice! The Master told us to go into all nations, and we are going to go if it takes a million troops to send us and keep us there. You are going on to the Capital to-morrow? You will meet a true saint of the Lord there, your own fellow countryman, the Rev. Dr. Amen. He is a true member of the Church Militant. Give him my regards when you see him."