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Luckily Sergeant Reeves was on the farther bank, and I having also crossed over, we proceeded to drive every coolie back into the river, until there was not a load left on the opposite bank. Rudyard Kipling, in his story of the taking of the Lungtungpen, tells how, after the scrimmage in the village, "We halted and formed up, and Liftinant Brazenose blushin' pink in the light of the mornin' sun.
D'ye iver see the loikes o'that, now? The blessed turrf! Here ye be, right in the divil's own garden. Liftinant, if ye'll let me build a fort here, I'll garrison it. I'll stay here me whole term of sarvice." "Halt," said Thurstane. "We'll eat, refill canteens, and inspect arms. If this is Diamond Cañon, and I think there is no doubt of it, we may expect to find Indians soon."
It stammers; it repeats the same words over and over; it can only begin to tell the monstrous truth. "Looks like we was in our grave," sighed Glover. "Liftinant," jerked out Sweeny, "I'm thinkin' we're dead. We ain't livin', Liftinant. We've been buried. We've no business trying to walk."
'Twas the most ondacent parade I iver tuk a hand in four-and-twenty privates an' a officer av the line in review ordher, an' not as much as wud dust a fife between 'em all in the way of clothin'." As I stood on that bank, with the evening sun lighting up the river, I thought of "Liftinant Brazenose," and also blushed.
"Blazes! ye're lousy wid money," commented Sweeny. "Ye want somebody to scratch yees." "Twenty thousan' dollars in bank," added Glover. "All by blowin' 'n' tradin'. Goin' hum in the next steamer. Anythin' I can do for ye, old messmate? Say how much." "It's the liftinant is takin' care av me. He's made a betther livin' nor yees, a thousand times over, by jist marryin' the right leddy.
Then he called, in his usual quick, sharp, chattering way, "Liftinant, is this soldierin'?" "Yes, my lad," replied Thurstane with a sad, weary smile, thinking meantime of hardships past, "this is soldiering." "Thin I'll do me dooty if I rot jest here," declared the simple hero.
Then, banging his mule with his heels, he splashed up to Thurstane with the explanation, "Liftinant, they're the same bloody naygurs. Wan av um made a poke at me, Liftinant." "Load your beece!" ordered Sergeant Meyer sternly, "und face the enemy." By this time there was a fierce confusion of plungings and outcries.
"All right, Liftinant," said Sweeny, relieved by having spoken. At this moment Glover shouted cheerfully, "We ain't dead yit There's a ledge." "I see it," nodded Thurstane. "Where there's a ledge there's an eddy," screamed Glover, raising his voice to pierce the hiss of the rapid and the roar of the cascade.
"I can, Liftinant." "You may try it." "Can I take me gun, Liftinant?" demanded Sweeny, who was extravagantly fond and proud of his piece, all the more perhaps because he held it in awe. "Yes, you can take it, and Glover can have Shubert's. Though, 'pon my honor, I don't know why we should carry firearms. It's old habit, I suppose. It's a way we have in the army."
'Liftinant Cassidy, she says, ''tis sthrange f'r ye that I've knowed so long to make scandal iv me before me neighbors, she says. 'Mrs. Scanlan, says he, 'we want th' boy. I'm sorry, ma'am, but he's mixed up in a bad scrape, an' we must have him, he says. She made a curtsy to thim, an' wint indures. 'Twas less than a minyit before she come out, clingin' to th' la-ad's ar-rm.
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