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“It ain’t, sir; it can’t be, to leave my orficer to die like this. I know it can’t. Why, if I did, and got the help, and took the men back, and the Colonel got to know how, he’d think it warn’t worth getting it at such a price. He’d call me a cowardly dog and a hound, and the lads would groan and spit at me. Why, they’d cob me when they got me alone, and I couldn’t say a word, because I should feel, as I always should to the last day I lived, that I’d been a miserable sneak.”

“I tell you it is your duty, my man,” cried Bracy again.

“Don’t send me, sir! I ain’t afraid,” pleaded Gedge once more. “It’s leaving you to die in the cold and dark. I can’t go! – I can’t go!”

Bracy struggled up at this, supporting himself with his left hand, moved now as he was by his companion’s devotion; but he choked down all he longed to say in the one supreme effort he was making to fulfil the mission he had failed in by another hand.

“I am your officer, sir. You are a soldier, sworn to serve your country and your Queen.”

Gedge looked down at the speaker through the gloom, and saw him fumbling beneath his sheepskin coat with his right hand. The next minute he had drawn his revolver, and Gedge heard it click.

“You hear me, sir?” cried Bracy sternly.

“Yes, sir, I hear.”

“Then obey your officer’s orders.”

“You ain’t an officer now, sir; you’re a patient waiting to be carried to the rear, after going down in front.”

“How dare you!” cried Bracy fiercely. “Obey my orders.”

“They ain’t your orders, and it ain’t my dooty to obey a poor fellow as has gone stick stark raving mad.”

“Obey my orders, dog, or – ”

“I won’t!” cried Gedge passionately. “I’ll be drummed out if I do.”

“You dog!” roared Bracy, and the pistol clicked.

“Shoot me, then, for a dog,” cried Gedge passionately, “and if I can I’ll try to lick yer hand, but I won’t leave you now.”

The pistol fell with a dull sound as Bracy sank back, and in that terrible darkness and silence, amid the icy snow, a hoarse groan seemed to tear its way from the young officer’s breast.

Chapter Thirty Four
A Wild Idea

How long that silence lasted neither could have afterwards said, but after a time Bracy felt a couple of hands busy drawing the spare poshtin more about him. Then a face was placed close to his, and a hand touched his forehead softly. “I’m not asleep, Gedge,” he said. “Ha!” sighed the lad, with a long drawn breath: “getting afraid, sir; you lay so still.”

“It’s all over, my man,” said Bracy wearily.

“No, no; don’t say that, sir,” cried Gedge. “I was obliged to – ”

“Hush! I don’t mean that. I only feel now that I can sleep.”

“Yes, sir; do, sir. Have a good try.”

“I cannot while I know that I have your coat.”

“Oh, I don’t mind, sir; and I’ve got to be sentry.”

“We want no sentry here, my lad. Take the coat from under me.”

“But – ”

“Come, obey me now,” said Bracy quietly. “Get close to me, then, and cover it over us both.”

“You mean that, sir?”

“Yes. – There, my lad, all men are equal at a time like this. I have striven to the last, but Fate has been against me from the first. I give up now.”

“I didn’t want to run against you, sir; but I was obliged.”

“Yes, I suppose so.”

“You wouldn’t have gone and left me, sir?”

“I don’t know,” said Bracy slowly.

“I do, sir; I know you wouldn’t.”

“Let it rest, my lad, and we’ll wait for day. God help the poor creatures at the fort, and God help us too!”

“Amen!” said Gedge to himself; and as the warmth began to steal through his half-frozen limbs he lay gazing at the distant glow of the enemy’s fire far away below, till it grew more and more faint, and then seemed to die right out – seemed, for it was well replenished again and again through the night, and sent up flames and sparks as if to give a signal far away, for the supply of fir-branches was abundant, and the fire rose in spirals up into the frosty sky.

Bracy too lay watching the distant blaze till it grew dim to his half-closed eyes. A calmer feeling of despair had come over him, and the feeling that he had done all that man could do softened the mental agony from which he had suffered. This was to be the end, he felt; and, if ever their remains were found, those who knew them would deal gently with their memory. For the inevitable future stared him blankly in the face. Gedge would strive his utmost to obtain help, but he felt that the poor fellow’s efforts would be in vain, and that, if they lived through the night, many hours would not elapse before they perished from hunger and the cold.

The feeling of weary mental confusion that stole over him then was welcome; and, weak from the agony he had suffered, he made an effort to rouse himself from the torpor that, Nature-sent, was lulling the pangs in his injured limb, but let his eyelids droop lower and lower till the distant light was shut out, and then cold, misery, and despair passed away, for all was blank.

The specks of golden light were beginning to show on the high peaks, and gradually grew brighter till it was sunny morning far up on the icy eminences, chilly dawn where the two sheepskin-covered figures lay prone, and night still where the fire was blazing by the pine-forest, and the great body of the enemy had bivouacked.

The two motionless figures were covered by a thick rime frost, which looked grey in the dim light, not a crystal as yet sending off a scintillation; and tiny spicules of ice had matted the moustache and beard of Bracy where his breath had condensed during the night, sealing them to the woolly coverlet he had drawn up close; while a strange tingling sensation attacked his eyes as he opened them suddenly, waking from a morning dream of defending the fort and giving orders to his men, who fired volley after volley, which, dream-like, sounded far away.

He was still half-asleep, but involuntarily he raised a warm hand to apply to his eyes. In a very few minutes they were clear, and he began breaking and picking off bit by bit the little icicles from his moustache.

It was strange how it mingled still with his dreams – that firing of volleys; and the half-drowsy thoughts turned to wonder that there should be firing, for he must be awake. Directly after he knew he was, for there was a sharp rattle in the distance, which came rolling and echoing from the face of the great cliff across the gulf, and Gedge jerked himself and said sleepily:

“That’s right, boys; let ’em have it.”

“Gedge!” cried Bracy hoarsely.

“Right, sir; I’m here,” was the answer; and the young soldier rolled over from beneath the poshtin, rose to his feet, staggered, and sat down again.

“Oh, murder!” he cried. “My poor feet ain’t froze hard, are they?”

“I pray not,” said Bracy excitedly.

“’Cause I can’t stand. But, hallo! sir; what game’s this? They’re a-firing at us, and coming up over the snow.”

“No, no, it can’t be!” cried Bracy wildly. “No tribes-men could fire volleys like that.”

“Course not, sir. Hoorray! then the Colonel’s sent a couple o’ comp’nies to help us.”

“Impossible!” cried Bracy. “Hark! there is the reply to the firing. Yes; and another volley. I almost thought I could see a flash.”

“Did yer, sir? Oh, don’t talk; do listen, sir. There they go. There must be a big fight going on down there.”

“Then friends have attacked the enemy in camp – advanced upon them so as to catch them before daylight.”

“Oh! they might ha’ waited till it was light enough for us to see, sir. Mr Bracy, sir, don’t, pray don’t say it’s reg’lars, because if it ain’t I couldn’t stand it now. I should go down and blubber like a great gal.”

“It is a force of regulars, my lad,” cried Bracy, whose voice sounded as if he were choking. “Friends are there below in the valley. I know: the Colonel must have been badly beaten at the fort.”

“Oh, don’t say that, sir.”

“It must be. They have been too much for him, and he is retreating with our lads trying to make for the Ghil Pass. That is the meaning of the gathering last night to bar their way.”

“Oh Lor’! oh Lor’! and us not able to fire a shot to help ’em. Be any use to begin, sir, like for signals to show we’re here?”

“No,” said Bracy sadly; “our single shots could not be heard.”

“Not if we fired both together, sir?” cried Gedge wildly. “I’ll load for you.”

“How could they distinguish between our shots and those of the enemy you can hear crackling?”

“Course not, sir. I’m a poor idjit sometimes. But oh! why does it keep dark down there so long when it’s getting quite light up here? We can’t see what’s going on a bit.”

“No; but my ears tell me pretty plainly,” said Bracy excitedly.

“Mr Bracy, sir.”

“Yes?”

“We aren’t worse, are we, and all this a sort o’ nightmare before we loses ourselves altogether?”

“No, man, no. Listen. They must be getting the worst of it.”

“Our lads, sir? Oh, don’t say that! There must be a lot of them, by the volley-firing. Don’t say they’re being cut up.”

“The enemy, man. Can’t you hear how steady the firing is? – Splendid. I can almost see them. The enemy must be retiring stubbornly, and they’re following them up.”

“Yes, sir; that’s it,” cried Gedge wildly. “Go on, sir; go on.”

“Their officers are holding the men well in hand, so as not to come to a charge in that broken country, and withering the crowd with their fire to make them scatter.”

“Right, sir, right. That’s it. Oh, if we was only there!”

There was a pause – the two men listening.

“The enemy’s firing sounds more broken up, and is getting feebler.”

“Yes, sir; I can make out that,” panted Gedge. “Oh! I say, don’t let the lads get out of hand and follow the beggars where they can get hold of the bay’nets and use their long knives.”

For another half-hour the pair lay listening to the engagement going on, till it seemed as if the daylight below would never come. Then the darkness gave way, to display far below a cold grey mist, through which clouds of smoke were softly rising; and Bracy brought his glass to bear upon the fight still raging furiously, and looked in silence till Gedge turned to him:

“Oh, do say something, sir! Our lads – they ain’t being cut up, sir, are they?”

“No, no, I think not, my lad; but I can hardly make out what is going on at present. Ha! it’s gradually growing lighter there. The enemy are not where they were last night, and the troops are there.”

“Then they’ve took the beggars’ camp, sir?”

“That does not follow,” said Bracy, whose eyes were glued to his glass. – “I can make out the white-coats now. They have divided, and are upon the rising ground all round. Our poor fellows must have fallen into a trap.”

“No, sir; no, sir, they couldn’t, sir,” cried Gedge; “they’d have seen that fire and known there was an enemy.”

“Yes, I forgot the fire,” said Bracy. “Oh, if the sun would only shine down upon them now!”

“But he won’t, sir; he never will when he’s wanted to. He won’t shine there for an hour yet.”

“Yes – no – yes – no,” panted Bracy at slow intervals; and Gedge wrung his hands, like a woman in trouble, whimpering out:

“Oh! who’s to know what that means, with his ‘Yes – no – yes – no’? Mr Bracy, sir, do – do say that our lads are whipping the beggars back.”

“Yes,” cried Bracy excitedly; “I can see now; the hill-men are scattered and running towards the mountains.”

“Hoorray!” yelled Gedge. “Hoorray! Hoorray! Hark at the steady volleys still, sir! Hoorray! Who wouldn’t be a soldier of the Queen?”

“Ha! Who indeed?” sighed Bracy.

“And it don’t matter, sir, now?” said Gedge.

“No; not so much, my lad; but they’ll be harassed like this all the way to the Ghil Pass.”

“And drive the beggars back, sir. But don’t you think we ought to make one try to get down to them, sir? Same as I said last night?”

Bracy was silent as he kept on using his glass, with the valley below growing clearer – so light now that, the young soldier could begin to see something of the fight with the naked eye, and he joined in the eager watch downward for a time before repeating his question.

“I fear not, my lad,” said Bracy, with a sigh. “The enemy are cut in two; one body is retreating down the valley in the direction of the fort; the other, widely scattered, is making for the snow-slope.”

“Not coming this way, sir?” cried Gedge.

“Yes, as far as I can see; and our men are steadily in pursuit, firing wherever a crowd collects.”

“That’s the way to do it, sir; but that’s cutting off our retreat.”

“Yes.”

“Well, then, sir, we must lie low till the enemy is cleared off. They won’t come up here.”

“No; they must be making for the track we crossed – the one below there, where we saw the men going towards the valley-bend.”

“That’s it, sir, and they’ve got their work cut out; but our lads won’t follow ’em right up there.”

“No; they will only follow till they have scattered them as far as possible.”

“And then go back, sir, and leave us where we are.”

“Yes,” said Bracy sadly.

Gedge was silent for a few minutes, during which they still watched the scene below. Then he broke out with:

“It’s all downhill, sir.”

“Yes, Gedge,” said Bracy drearily; “it is all downhill now to the end.”

“You ain’t listening to me, sir,” cried the lad. “Do put that glass away, sir, and we’ll have a try.”

“A try? What! to get down below? You try, my lad; but there is the terrible risk of being cut to pieces by the enemy if they see you.”

“Don’t begin that again, sir, please. You know I won’t leave you, but let’s have a try.”

“I am helpless, my lad – as helpless as a figure half of lead.”

“But I ain’t, sir,” cried Gedge. “The sight of our lads below there seems to ha’ woke me up. I’m ready to die game; but I want to make one spurt for life first.”

“Why, Gedge,” cried Bracy excitedly as he lowered the glass from his eyes, “they’re not our fellows after all.”

“What, sir!”

“No; and there’s a detachment down yonder coming from the east. I can almost see that they’re doubling to get up in time.”

“From the east, sir? Then the Colonel ain’t retreating?”

“No. – Hurrah!”

“Hoorray!” roared Gedge, joining in.

“They’re the Ghoorkhas, Gedge. They must be a thousand strong.”

“Then one o’ the messengers must ha’ got to them after all.”

“Yes; that must be it, Gedge; and they surprised the enemy’s camp at dawn.”

“That’s it, sir!” yelled Gedge. “Hoorray! hoorray again! Then there is life in a mussel after all.”

“They’ve scattered this force, Gedge, and the fort will be relieved, for the bravo little fellows will cut their way through all.”

“Yes, sir. Now then, sir, you needn’t hardly move. There’s a bit o’ slaty stone yonder as’ll do, and all I want of you, sir, is for yer to sit still upon it, and nuss the rifles while I steer you down to the truck.”

“Right in among the enemy, my lad?”

“Right through ’em, sir. They’re on the run, and won’t dare to stop to go at us. I never heard of a nigger as’d stand a moment when a Ghoorkha was coming after him with his crooked knife.”

“Let’s try,” said Bracy, setting his teeth. “Life is sweet, my lad.”

“Even without sugar, sir. Why, bless your ’eart! there’s a lot of it in us both yet, sir. This here’s nothing to what we’ve been and done.”

Wild with excitement now, Gedge fetched the heavy slab of stone, almost as much as he could lift, drew it close up behind Bracy, and placed his arms under the young officer’s shoulders.

“Now, sir,” he said, “you set your teeth just as if the doctor was going to use his knife.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Draw you right back on to this stone, sir. I must hurt you a bit, but I can’t help that.”

“Go on,” said Bracy; and the next moment he was drawn back upon the stone, with no worse suffering than a fit of faintness, for his leg was numb with the cold.

“Right, sir. Now your rifle and mine across your legs. Stop; my poshtin first. May want it again. Got the cartridges handy?”

“Yes.”

“Then I sits here between your legs, sir. Just room, and I can steer and put on the break with my heels. Ready, sir?”

“Yes.”

“Then off.”

The surface of the snow was like glass with the night’s frost, and the stone began to glide at once, just as the first gleams of the rising sun lit up the spot where such terrible hours had been spent; and the next minute, with a strange, metallic, hissing sound, the pair were gliding down the slope at a steady rate, which Gedge felt it in his power to increase to a wild rush by raising his heels from the surface upon which they ran.

“All right, sir?”

“Yes, all right. Go on.”

“Ain’t it wonderful, sir? Why, we can get down to the track long before any of them can get up to it.”

“Stop, then, to let them reach it and retreat.”

“If you order me to, sir, I will; but they’ll never try to stop us; they’ll scatter to see us coming down like this. Why, in less than an hour, sir, we shall be all among the Ghoorkha lads, and then hoorray for the fort!”

“Go on, then. I trust to you.”

“Right, sir,” cried Gedge excitedly; and in spite of several risks of overturning, he steered the novel toboggan sledge down the gigantic slide, with the wild, metallic, hissing sound rising and falling on the keen wind that fanned their cheeks, and a glistening prismatic, icy dust rising behind them like a snaky cloud.

Chapter Thirty Five
The Idea Tamed

Onward, swifter or slower, they moved as the undulations of the mighty snow-slope ruled with the rough track crossing at right-angles far below and gradually growing plainer, the white-coats of the fleeing enemy, the kharkee jackets of the advancing line of Ghoorkhas, and the pulls of smoke from each discharge coming nearer as if in a dream. The excitement of the wild rush seemed to madden Gedge, who, as he found out that he could easily control his rough chariot of stone, let it glide faster and faster, his eyes sparkling, and the various phases of the fight below sending a wild longing to be amongst it thrilling through his nerves.

“Oh,” he shouted, “if there was only a hundred of us coming down like this to take the enemy front and rear! Are you all right, sir?”

“Yes, yes; but beware of the rocks down below there by the track.”

“Right, sir. Wish they weren’t there, though, and we could go right on; charge through ’em in no time.”

He had to speak without turning his head, and Bracy did not catch half his words. But it was no time for speaking; and, forgetting for the time being his injuries and partial helplessness, Bracy began to share in his driver’s excitement, and watched the movements going on below.

The height to which they had climbed had been great, and some memory of the labour they had gone through in the ascent came back as they swept rapidly down, till in an incredibly short space of time they neared the rocky track, with its rugged pinnacles and masses standing right up out of the snow.

Gedge saw that the enemy was still far below the track; and as he checked the way on the stone by gradually driving in his well-nailed boot heels, he looked to right or left for a spot where there would be a clear crossing of the track, free from projecting rocks, so that a stoppage would not be necessary. There it was, lying well to the right, narrow but perfectly practicable. For, plainly enough, he could see that there had been a snow-slide burying a portion of the track, and if he could steer between a couple of rocks, not ten yards apart, the glide down could be continued without a pause.

“It’s all right, sir,” he cried. “Signals is clear, and we don’t stop at that station. Hoorray! Her Majesty’s mails. Fast express.”

It was on Bracy’s lips to cry, “Take care,” but he nipped them together and sat fast, feeling their pace slacken as if, to carry out Gedge’s simile, they were easing down to run through a station.

Nearer, nearer, with rough crags half-buried in the snow on both sides and seeming to close in upon them as they glided down, with the narrow pass between the two rocks unaccountably growing for the moment closer together. But directly after, by clever steering, Gedge made a curve in their descent, brought the stone opposite the opening, and then let it go.

Their way rose a little as they approached the track where it was buried in the snow, but directly after the descent was steeper; and as soon as Gedge felt sure of his course they dashed through the opening at a greatly increased speed. Then he shouted in his wild excitement as they tore down towards the enemy, who were toiling upward, slipping, and even crawling on all-fours in places, while their active little pursuers were striving their best to overtake them, but pausing at times to fire.

Pursued and pursuers were still far below, but Bracy saw that it was only a matter of a short time before they would be amongst them; and now, for the first time, it was evident that their descent had caught the attention of the hill-men striving to reach the track, some of whom stopped short to stare, while a party of about twenty immediately bore off to their left as if meaning to intercept them.

“What’s it to be, sir!” panted Gedge. “Charge through ’em, or stop and let ’em have it? They’ll be ‘twix’ two fives.”

“Stop!” shouted Bracy. “They’ll try to check us, and slash as we come; and if we strike against even one we shall be upset.”

“That’s right, sir. Be ready with the rifles. Mine’s charged, I think. ’Nother five hundred yards right for that lot o’ twenty, and then slide off and open fire – eh?”

“You don’t want your orders, Gedge,” said Bracy dryly. “Quite right.”

Gedge did not hear him, for, as they rushed down over the icy snow, he had his work cut out to check his awkward car, as it nearly mastered him, his heels gliding over the smooth surface and refusing to cut in. Forcing them down, though, the speed began to slacken, till they neared the ascending group of savage faces of those who had borne off to intercept them; and as the car was brought to a stand a couple of shots were fired, and the missiles sent whistled by their heads.

“Can yer roll off, sir, and lie on yer face?” cried Gedge as he snatched his rifle, threw himself down behind the stone, and opened his cartridge-pouch.

“Yes. Look to yourself. Fire sharply, or they’ll be upon us.”

“Or our bay’nets,” said Gedge through his teeth.

The next moment he fired as he rested upon his elbows, and a shot from Bracy rang out, with the result that two of the group below them dropped, and a yell came from the remainder as they made a rush to reach them. But their running powers were exhausted, and at the end of twenty yards they resumed their heavy climb, with their feet breaking through the crust of frozen snow.

Crack, crack! from the English rifles, and one more dropped in his track, while another sprang wildly in advance for a few yards, before pitching forward upon his face and lying still.

“Fire steadily,” said Bracy hoarsely, “and we may cheek them.”

“Right, sir. Quick, too, for the beggars on the left are closing in to help.”

A couple more shots were fired, and another man went down, and then there was a yell of rage and an order from one of the party, with the result that all dropped upon their faces, checked, and began to fire at the pair crouching behind the stone, made to look bigger by Gedge’s poshtin lying in a little heap on the top.

“It’s all right, sir; they couldn’t hit a haystack. Their hands are all of a tremble with climbing. We’re right enough. I hit that chap.”

Proof was given, for one of the enemy started up, dropped his long jezail, and fell backwards.

“Keep on firing steadily, Gedge,” said Bracy huskily. “I must open upon that group on our flank. They’re coming on.”

“Then we’re done, for, sir,” said the young soldier. “But mind this, sir; I die game, though you did call me a coward last night.”

“I did, Gedge, and it was a cruel lie, my lad. Fire away. I wish I had your pluck. Look here.”

“Yes, sir. – One for you,” growled Gedge as he fired again. – “I’m listening, but I can’t look. Hit him, sir?”

“Yes,” said Bracy. “Look here.”

“Can’t, sir.”

“Then listen. When it comes to the worst – one grip of the hand, my lad, before we go.”

Crack – crack!

Two more shots in answer to the scattered fire of the enemy, whose bullets whistled over their heads, seeking billets in the snow around.

“Won’t be long, sir, I’m afraid,” said Gedge. “No, I ain’t afraid – not a bit. But those chaps are coming on faster. ’Tain’t climbing, sir, now.”

“No; they’ll be upon us before five minutes have passed. Turn your rifle upon them, my lad, for two or three shots, and we may check them too.”

Before Gedge could change his position a scattered volley from below somewhere rattled out, and the flanking-party coming on needed no checking, some of them falling dying or wounded, while the remainder threw themselves down and began firing, some at their pursuers below, the rest at Bracy and Gedge.

“Hoorray, sir! Didn’t I say there was life in a mussel? The Ghoorkhas are at ’em. Look, sir, there’s about a dozen of ’em lying down to cover the advance, and another dozen coming on with their knives. Let’s show ’em how to shoot, sir. It ’ll help the little chaps, too, when they charge.”

It was as Gedge said; and as shot after shot was sent with good aim, the party of tribes-men in front was lessened by half-a-dozen before the little Ghoorkha party came up within charging distance and made their rush.

“Fix bayonets!” cried Bracy. “The enemy may come at us;” and the little, dagger-like weapons clicked and clicked as they flashed in the sunshine.

But Bracy and Gedge got in a couple more shots before their foes sprang up to charge them. Then a couple more dropped as they came on, while a volley from below rattled out and made their attack feeble and aimless, though they reached their goal, one to make a slash at Gedge as he was pinned by the lad’s bayonet, while two more struck at Bracy. Then the Ghoorkhas were upon them, racing over the snow, their crooked knives flashing, and the remaining enemy were fleeing for their lives, scattering far and wide, with their pursuers overtaking man after man, whose white-coats made blots on the glistening snow, and many a terrible stain. Then a whistle rang out as an officer came up to the stone at the double, sword in hand.

“Hullo, here!” he cried; “who, in the name of wonder, are you? I couldn’t get up in time. My boys didn’t do that?”

Bracy’s lips parted, but no sound came.

“No, sir,” panted Gedge; “it was the straight knives did it, not them pretty little blades.”

“I’m glad of that. I was afraid my boys had made a mistake. But who are you?”

“Private Willyum Gedge, in the 404th Fusiliers; and here’s my lieutenant, Mr Bracy, sir. We was coming from the fort to fetch you.”

“Ah!” cried the officer. “How is it with them there?”

“All right, sir; but hard pushed when we come away. Ain’t got such a thing as a doctor about yer, have you?”

“Yes, yes. My boys shall carry you down. All right,” he cried as a bugle rang out from below with the recall; and by that time the little group were surrounded by some twenty of the active Ghoorkhas, for the most part with a begonia-leaved kukri in hand, laughing, chattering, and ready to dance with delight around the two British soldiers they had saved.

Meanwhile their officer was down on one knee rendering first aid to the wounded, the knife of one of the enemy having slashed Bracy’s thigh, which was bleeding profusely; and a havildar of the Ghoorkhas was cleverly bandaging Gedge’s left arm, chattering to him merrily in broken English the while.

“Try and swallow a drop more,” said the officer to Bracy, who was reviving a little, and smiled his thanks, his eyes wandering round directly after in search of something, till a movement on the part of their rescuers enabled him to see Gedge, to whom he feebly held out his hand.

“Much hurt?” he said faintly.

“Tidy, sir. Smarts a lot; but I don’t mind, sir. Say you’ve not got it bad.”

“Bad enough, my lad; but we’ve won.”

Gedge turned to the officer with a wild, questioning look in his eyes, for Bracy sank back, half-fainting.

“A bad, clean cut; that’s all,” said the officer, smiling encouragement.

“But it ain’t all, sir,” cried Gedge passionately. “He’s badly hurt besides. Crippled in the leg.”

“Ah! and you fought like that! Well, we must get him down to the doctor; he is not far below. Ambulance party here.”

“Beg pardon, sir; why not lay him on the stone again, and let him slide down easy? I can ride, too, and steer.”

“I don’t understand you, my lad,” said the officer, looking at Gedge as if he thought him wandering.

He soon did comprehend, though; and the little Ghoorkhas cheered with delight as, with Bracy lying upon the sheepskin-coats, the stony sledge went gliding slowly down the slope, half-a-dozen of the little fellows forming its escort, and ready to check it from breaking away, till the end of the snowfield was reached, and the two sufferers were soon after being well tended by the doctor in the temporary camp.

This was near the fir-wood hold by the enemy the night before – the enemy, after heavy loss, having been scattered far and wide.