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And so the long, long night wore on. At midnight came outlandish Indians staggering under the green-curtained palanquins they call doolies: these were filled up and taken away to the Elandslaagte Station. At one o'clock we had the rare sight of a general under a waggon trying to sleep, and two privates on top of it rummaging for loot.
Pegu, and the goods are there landed from the barks, being carried thence to Pegu in carts or wains drawn by oxen. The merchants are conveyed from Macceo to Pegu in close palanquins, called delings or doolies, in each of which one man is well accommodated, having cushions to rest upon, and a secure covering from the sun or rain, so that he may sleep if he will.
The three uneventful days that followed were among the happiest in his life; and on the fourth, before sunset, the two women set out, in hospital doolies, on their primitive journey to Sheik Budeen. Honor had protested, almost to tears, at being compelled to spend a fortnight with her heart in two places, and her body in a third!
At sunset two doolies, escorted by men of the 5th Punjab Cavalry, were seen on the road coming towards us. They contained the bodies of a European sergeant and a man of the Road Department, who had been surprised and cut to pieces by some of the rebel cavalry.
I was very curious to know what had become of the doolies. I jumped into bed for that reason. Next minute I heard the double click of a cannon and my hair sat up. It is a mistake to say that hair stands up. The skin of the head tightens and you can feel a faint, prickly bristling all ever the scalp. That is the hair sitting up.
Those hundred doolies went up without the slightest suspicion, and they were ranged around the governor's house. The sequel may be readily guessed: no sooner were the supposed bearers relieved of their loads than they flew to arms, and thus got possession of the fort of Callenger.
Riding back, I observed a gruesome sight. At the head of the column of doolies and stretchers were the bodies of the killed, each tied with cords upon a mule. Their heads dangled on one side and their legs on the other. The long black hair of the Sikhs, which streamed down to the ground, and was draggled with dust and blood, imparted a hideous aspect to these figures.
The door shut, and I thanked Providence that I was to be left in peace. But I was curious to know where the doolies had gone. I got out of bed and looked into the darkness. There was never a sign of a doolie.
Still there was no dew, though the night was starlight. Having provided doolies, or little bamboo chairs slung on four men's shoulders, in which I put my papers and boxes, we next morning commenced the ascent; at first through woods of the common trees, with large clumps of bamboo, over slaty rocks of gneiss, much inclined and sloping away from the mountain.
It was on October 25, about five miles out on the Helpmakaar road, which runs east from Ladysmith. By the stream below the hill he had just trotted down, and choking the pass beyond, wriggled the familiar tail of waggons and water-carts, ambulances, and doolies, and spare teams of old mules in new harness.
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