CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
ONLY HUMAN.
As the sun gathered force in rising higher, a thin veil of snow wasmelted from off a broad patch of rock, which dried rapidly; and, after alittle consideration, Gedge went to Bracy's shoulders, took fast hold ofhis _poshtin_, and drew him softly and quickly off the icy surface righton to the warm, dry rock, the young officer's eyes opening widely intransit, and then closing again without their owner becoming conscious,but, as his head was gently lowered down again upon its sheepskinpillow, the deep sleep of exhaustion went on.
"Needn't ha' been 'fraid o' waking you," said Gedge softly, and lookingdown at the sleeper as if proud of his work.--"There, you'll be dry andwarm as a toast, and won't wake up lying in a pond o' water.--Now I'lljust have a look round, and then sit down and wait till he wakes."
Gedge took his good look round, making use of Bracy's glass, and in twoplaces made out bodies of white-coated men whose weapons glinted in thesun shine; but they were far away, and in hollows among the hills.
"That's all I can make out," said Gedge, closing the glass and replacingit softly in the case slung from Bracy's shoulders; "but there's holesand cracks and all sorts o' places where any number more may be. Blestif I don't think all the country must have heard that we're going forhelp, and turned out to stop us. My! how easy it all looked when westarted! Just a long walk and a little dodging the niggers, and the jobdone. One never thought o' climbing up here and skating down, and havea launching in the snow."
Gedge yawned tremendously, and being now in excellent spirits andcontentment with himself, he chuckled softly.
"That was a good one," he said. "What a mouth I've got! I say, though,my lad, mouths have to be filled, and there ain't much left. We weregoing, I thought, to shoot pheasants, and kill a sheep now and then, tomake a fire and have roast bird one day, leg o' mutton the next, andcold meat when we was obliged; but seems to me that it was all cookingyour roast chickens before they was hatched. Fancy lighting a fireanywhere! Why, it would bring a swarm of the beauties round to carve usup instead of the wittles; and as to prog, why, I ain't seen nothing butthat one bear. Don't seem to hanker after bear," continued Gedge aftera few minutes' musing, during which he made sure that Bracy was sleepingcomfortably. "Bears outer the 'Logical Gardens, nicely fatted up onbuns, might be nice, and there'd be plenty o' nice fresh bear's greasefor one's 'air; but these here wild bears in the mountains must feedtheirselves on young niggers and their mothers, and it'd be like being asort o' second-hand cannibal to cook and eat one of the hairy brutes.No, thanky; not this time, sir. I'll wait for the pudden."
Human nature is human nature, which nobody can deny; and, uncultivatedsave in military matters, and rough as he was, Bill Gedge was as humanas he could be. He had just had a tremendous tramp for a whole day, asleepless night of terrible excitement and care, a sudden respite fromanxiety, a meal, and the glow of a hot sun upon a patch of rock whichsent a genial thrill of comfort through his whole frame. These were thedifficulties which were weighing hard in one of the scales of the youngprivate's constitution, while he was doing his best to weigh down theother scale with duty, principle, and a manly, honest feeling of likingfor the officer whom he had set up from the first moment of beingattached to the company as the model of what a soldier should be. Itwas hard work. Those yawns came again and again, increasing inviolence.
"Well done, boa-constructor," he said. "Little more practice, andyou'll be able to swallow something as big as yourself; but my! don't itstretch the corners of your mouth! I want a bit o' bear's grease readyto rub in, for they're safe to crack.
"My! how sleepy I am!" he muttered a little later. "I ain't been put onsentry-go, but it's just the same, and a chap as goes to sleep in theface of the enemy ought to be shot. Sarve him right, too, for notkeeping a good lookout. Might mean all his mates being cut up. Oh! Isay, this here won't do," he cried, springing up. "Let's have ahoky-poky penny ice, free, grashus, for nothing."
He went off on tiptoe, glancing at Bracy as he passed, and then stoopeddown over a patch of glittering snow, scraping up a handful andstraightening himself in the sunshine, as he amused himself byaddressing an imaginary personage.
"Say, gov'nor," he cried, "you've got a bigger stock than you'll getshut of to-day.--Eh? You don't expect to? Right you are, old man.Break yer barrer if yer tried to carry it away. Say; looks cleaner andnicer to-day without any o' that red or yeller paint mixed up with it.I like it best when it's white. Looks more icy.--What say? Spoon? No,thank ye. Your customers is too fond o' sucking the spoons, and I neversee you wash 'em after.--Ha! this is prime. Beats Whitechapel all tofits; and it's real cold, too. I don't care about it when it'sbeginning to melt and got so much juist.--But I say! Come! Fair play'sa jewel. One likes a man to make his profit and be 'conimycal with thesugar, but you ain't put none in this.
"Never mind," he added after a pause, during which the Italianice-vendor faded out of his imagination; "it's reg'lar 'freshing whenyou're so sleepy. Wonder what made them Italians come to London andstart selling that stuff o' theirs. Seems rum; ours don't seem acountry for that sort o' thing. Baked taters seems so much moreEnglish, and does a chap so much more good."
He walked back to the warm patch of rock, looked at Bracy, and thenplaced both rifles and bayonets ready, sat down cross-legged, and afterwithdrawing the cartridges, set to work with an oily rag to remove alltraces of rust, and gave each in turn a good polish, ending by carefullywiping the bayonets after unfixing them, and returning them to theirsheaths, handling Bracy's most carefully, for fear of disturbing thesleeper. This done, he began to yawn again, and, as he expressed it,took another penny ice and nodding at vacancy, which he filled with aperipatetic vendor, he said:
"All right, gov'nor; got no small change. Pay next time I come thisway."
Then he marked out a beat, and began marching up and down.
"Bah!" he cried; "that ice only makes you feel dry and thirsty.--My! howsleepy I am!--Here, steady!" he cried, as he yawned horribly; "you'llhave your head right off, old man, if you do that.--Never was so sleepyin my life."
He marched up and down a little faster--ten paces and turn--ten pacesand turn--up and down, up and down, in the warm sunshine; but it was asif some deadly stupor enveloped him, and as he kept up the steadyregulation march, walking and turning like an automaton, he was suddenlyfast asleep and dreaming for quite a minute, when he gave a violentstart, waking himself, protesting loudly against a charge made againsthim, and all strangely mixed up the imaginary and the real.
"Swear I wasn't, Sergeant!" he cried angrily. "Look for yerself.--Didn't yer see, pardners? I was walking up and down like a clockworkhimidge.--Sleep at my post? Me sleep at my post? Wish I may die if Ido such a thing. It's the old game. Yer allus 'ated me, Sergeant, fromthe very first, and--Phew! Here! What's the matter? I've caughtsomething, and it's got me in the nut. I'm going off my chump."
Poor Gedge stood with his hands clasped to his forehead, staring wildlybefore him.
"Blest if I wasn't dreaming!" he said wonderingly. "Ain't took bad, amI? Thought old Gee come and pounced upon me, and said I was sleepin' onduty. And it's a fack. It's as true as true; I was fast asleep;leastwise I was up'ards. Legs couldn't ha' been, because they'd ha'laid down. Oh! this here won't do. It was being on dooty withoutarms."
Drawing himself up, he snatched his bayonet from its scabbard, andresumed his march, going off last asleep again; but this time thecessation of consciousness descended as it were right below thewaist-belt and began to steal down his legs, whose movements becameslower and slower, hips, then knees, stiffening; and then, as the drowsygod's work attacked his ankles, his whole body became rigid, and hestood as if he had been gradually frozen stiff for quite a minute, whenit seemed as if something touched him, and he sprang into wakefulnessagain, and went on with his march up and down.
"Oh, it's horrid!" he said piteously. "Of course. That'll do it."
He
sheathed his bayonet, and catching up his rifle, went through theregular forms as if receiving orders: he grounded arms; then drew andfixed bayonet, shouldered arms, and began the march again.
"That's done it," he said. "Reg'larly woke up now. S'pose a fellowcan't quite do without sleep, unless he got used to it, like the chap's'oss, only he died when he'd got used to living upon one eat a day. Rumthing, sleep, though. I allus was a good un to sleep. Sleep anywhere;but I didn't know I was so clever as to sleep standing up. Wonderwhether I could sleep on one leg. Might do it on my head. Often said Icould do anything on my head. There, it's a-coming on again."
He stepped to the nearest snow and rubbed his temples with it beforeresuming his march; but the relief was merely temporary. He went toBracy's side, to see that he was sleeping heavily, and an intensefeeling of envy and longing to follow his officer's example and lie downand sleep for hours nearly mastered him.
"But I won't--I won't sleep," he said, grinding his teeth. "I'll diefirst. I'm going to keep awake and do my dooty like a soldier by myorficer. I'd do it for any orficer in the ridgement, so of course Iwould for the gov'nor, poor chap! He's watched over me before now.--Yes, I'm going to keep on. I shall be better soon. Ten minutes wouldset me right, and if there was a mate here to take my post I'd have anap; but there ain't a pardner to share it, and I've got to do it on myhead. Wonder whether I should feel better if I did stand on my head fora minute. Anyhow, I ain't goin' to try."
Gedge spent the next ten minutes in carefully examining his rifle; thenhe turned to Bracy, and soon after he took out the latter's glass andswept the country round, to find more groups of men in motion.
"Why, the place is getting alive with the beggars," he growled. "Weshall be having some of 'em cocking an eye up and seeing us here. Don'tknow, though; they couldn't make us out, and even if they did we looklike a couple o' sheep. I've got to look out sharp, though, to see aswe're not surprised. Almost wish three or four would come now, so as Icould have a set-to with 'em. That would wake me up, and no mistake.--Ah! it's wonderful what one can see with a bit or two o' glass set in abrown thing like this.--Ah! there it is again."
Gedge lowered the glass and started violently, for the feeling of sleepwas now overmastering.
"Nearly dropped and smashed his glass," he said petulantly, and, layingdown his rifle, he closed the little lorgnette slowly and carefully withhalf-numbed fingers, which fumbled about the instrument feebly.
"He'd ha'--he'd ha'--fine--tongue-thrashing when he woke--foun' glass--smashed."
Gedge sank upon his knees and bent over the sleeper, fumbling for thestrap and case to replace the glass.
"Where ha' you got to?" he muttered. "What yer swinging about half amile away for? Ah! that's got yer," he went on, aiming at the case witha strange fixity of expression. "Now then--the lid--the lid--and thestrap through the buckle, and the buckle--done it--me go to sleep--ondooty, Sergeant? Not me!--I--I--ha-h-h!"
Poor Gedge was only human, and his drowsy head sank across Bracy'sbreast, so wrapped in sleep that the firing of a rifle by his ear wouldhardly have roused him up.