Chapter XXVII: Larry and Jack Make a Discovery

Jack was heartily glad when, on the third day after the battle, the dead having been buried and the wounded conveyed aboard ship, the forward march was continued.

There had been delays, caused partly by the unreadiness of the French, and partly by the vacillating policy of Marshal St Arnaud, the French commander, a conceited man of mediocre ability, who was even then, poor fellow, dying of disease.

Jack’s officer, Captain Norreys, had been appointed on Lord Lucan’s staff, much to the regret of the troop, who regarded him with the greatest confidence and respect.

‘I’m glad to leave that battlefield behind,’ said Jack to Linham as they rode along.

‘Leave that behind to find another,’ growled the sergeant, who was not in the best of humours; ‘and mayhap the next you won’t leave behind. You’ll stay on it, or under it.’

Without seeing an enemy, the cavalry descended to the valley of the Katcha, where they had seen the panic-stricken troops from the Alma, and there they halted. The village was extremely pretty; the homely, vine-clad cottages had gardens then full of bloom in front and rear; well-filled orchards adjoined the gardens, and the troopers ate their fill of grapes, pears, peaches, and apricots. On entering the cottages, signs of Russian barbarity were met on all sides--furniture smashed, pictures slashed and ripped, boxes and cupboards ransacked, and so on.

The main body of the British army bivouacked that night on the Katcha; but the cavalry pushed on five miles farther, to the Belbeck, where they passed the night more or less uncomfortably, having to stand to their horses for two hours owing to a false alarm.

In the morning it was found that several of the Hussars’ horses had broken away from their lines, and these had doubtless been the cause of the alarm. Soon after daylight an officer arrived from Lord Raglan, and he and Lord Lucan remained some time in conversation.

Then the cavalry started upon that daring ‘flank march’ which the ineptitude of the dying French commander-in-chief had almost forced Lord Raglan to adopt. The advance was led by an experienced officer said to know the country. A horse-battery and a battalion of Rifles accompanied the cavalry, who marched with flankers thrown out. On account of having to keep pace with the Rifles the advance was very slow, the road, which was bad and often exceedingly steep, leading through a dense forest. A narrow lane was supposed to lead to a spot known as Mackenzie’s Farm, and this lane was to be left for the artillery and cavalry, the infantry forcing their way in any sort of order through the forest.

The men were in high spirits and laughed and chatted gaily as they rode along, chaffing the sturdy Rifles and bidding them ‘put their best leg foremost.’ After a march of some miles a halt was made, and Jack, who with his troop was near the head of the column, saw a staff-officer and several of the 8th Hussars busy talking together. The lane branched into two parts, one going straight on, the other going to the right.

‘Ha, hum!’ snorted Sergeant Linham, ‘come to a stop I suppose. I’ll bet they don’t know which road to take.’

This seemed to be the case, for the staff-officer was seen to gallop along one branch, being absent some time. When he returned more talk ensued, and then the troops were put in motion again, going straight on. The horse artillery, however, being some distance in the rear, did not advance along the same lane as the cavalry, but followed the other, and, as it turned out, the correct one.

The road the cavalry was pursuing got narrower and more rutty as they advanced through densely wooded country, and presently a trumpet rang out the halt.

‘What’s up, I wonder?’ said Jack to Pearson. ‘We can’t have lost our way, can we?’

‘We can do anything,’ said Sergeant Linham, riding up. ‘I shouldn’t wonder if we were to come plump upon the Russian cavalry just by accident like--ha, hum! Now, I want to know what’s the use of’----

‘D Troop, prepare to dismount! Dismount!’ cried Cornet Leland; and the men gladly availed themselves of the opportunity of stretching their legs.

Larry, whose troop of the 8th was not far behind Jack’s, came up to seek his friend.

‘Bedad, we seem to be playing a game of hide-and-seek,’ he said. ‘It’s thinking I am that a bite and a sup would be welcome now.’

‘True enough, Larry; but I’ve only half a biscuit left, and my water-bottle’s empty,’ said Jack.

‘Ditto for me,’ said Larry.

The men were told they could ‘stand easy,’ and several wandered off a little way among the trees. Larry and Jack walked towards a spot where wild-flowers were growing in great luxuriance; and, plucking some of these, they wandered farther on till they had got some distance from their regiments.

Presently they came in sight of two tall pine-trees with thin trunks, and they looked at these, then at each other, then both burst out laughing.

‘Bedad, I wonder whether yer thoughts is the same as mine?’ laughed Larry.

‘I was thinking it was years since I climbed a tree,’ said Jack.

‘And never since I left the dear ould counthry have I rivalled the monkeys,’ said the impetuous Irishman. ‘Jack darlint, I’ll race yez up to the top, and the last one up shall stand the other a dhrink of porter the first toime we ever set foot in a canteen again.’

‘Done!’ said Jack, and in a few moments Lancer and Hussar had doffed headdress, sword, and instruments, and were climbing for dear life.

Larry went up as nimbly as a monkey, and out-stripped Jack.

‘Hurroo,’ he cried, ‘I’ve beaten yez!’

‘You have, Larry,’ panted Jack; ‘I give you best. But what a fine view we can get from here! Why, there’s the edge of the forest, and the road, and’----

‘Howly Moses, look there to yer left!’ cried Larry, almost dropping from his perch in his excitement.

‘Russians and baggage!’ gasped Jack, as he gazed down into the road on which Larry’s eyes were fixed.

There, sure enough, was a long line of wagons, all

standing still, the drivers dozing on their seats, while the escort, a battalion of foot Cossacks, were sitting beside the road chatting, or strolling listlessly to and fro.

The lads descended to the ground and looked at one another with astonished faces.

‘Larry, we’ve made a discovery,’ said Jack. ‘We must get back and bring our fellows down; those wagons must be captured.’

The trumpeters turned and ran back at top speed, till they suddenly emerged from between the trees and almost ran into two mounted Hussar officers.

‘Bedad, it’s the colonel,’ said Larry.

‘You young scoundrels, what’s the meaning of this?’ cried Larry’s colonel, who was something of a martinet.

Larry gave a picturesque account of what had happened, when the Hussar colonel first ripped out a very strong expression, then, as though seized with a sudden idea, said to his fellow-officer, ‘Major, this confounded losing our way may turn out to our advantage after all. The artillery can’t be far off; if we could find them we’d ride down, attack the column, and capture the convoy. Ride like fury to Lord Lucan and tell him what’s happened.’

The major dashed off.

‘I suppose there is no mistake about this, O’Callaghan?’ said the colonel sternly.

‘On me honour, colonel, I saw ’em wid me very own eyes.’

‘If you’ve made a mistake, you scoundrel, I’ll try you by court-martial,’ said the colonel. ‘You’d better both mount and scour round to see if you can find the artillery. They must have kept to the left-hand road when we took the right, and they can’t be far off. If you find them tell the officer in command to follow us as quickly as he can. Failing that, rejoin your regiments, or any of the other parties who are searching the forest for the road we ought to have followed.’

Jack and Larry at once mounted and spurred off. Jack, who had a very good idea of localities, struck away to the left. They rode sharply for ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, then they heard a rumble of wheels.

‘That sounds like guns,’ cried Larry.

‘We’ll soon see,’ said Jack, and he slid from Dainty and laid his ear against the ground.

‘You’re right, Larry,’ he said; ‘it is guns. Away we go.’

They went at a trot, the sound, however, having stopped. Presently they saw by the increasing light in front of them that they were nearing a road. They heard voices, spurred forward, and in a few seconds were in the lane.

‘It’s the guns,’ said Jack; ‘the officer in command will be near the head of the column.’

He turned into the narrow lane, when he saw a group of officers, not in the blue-and-gold of the artillery, but in scarlet and cocked hats.

‘The staff, by all that’s howly!’ murmured Larry.

‘Lord Raglan himself,’ said Jack in hardly audible tones, fixing his eyes on a white-haired, one-armed man dressed in a blue frock, who with no very pleased expression on his face rode in the centre of a group of officers.

The trumpeters sat rigidly in their saddles, and dropped their right hands behind their thighs in salute.

‘Where do you come from and where are your regiments?’ asked the commander-in-chief sternly, and by these words the youths knew that the great man was exceedingly displeased.