Chapter LIV: An Ally of Providence

The Colonel was away on business soon after sunrise, long before the boys were awake. The Russians had had enough for the moment and gave them a quiet night.

He came in while they were breakfasting, with a satisfied look on his face.

"Well, Jack, how goes it? You were both sleeping like tops when I left you."

"I feel like a jelly-fish on Carne beach, sir," said Jack. "I have a very great disinclination to move."

"Cuts twingy?"

"When I think of them, sir. At present I can think of nothing but this coffee. They give us ours green, you know, and nothing to roast or grind it with."

"So I heard. I would like to see what would happen if they sent ours like that; but, _mon Dieu!_ I wouldn't like to be in their shoes! The good old fashion of hanging a commissary whenever anything went wrong was certainly effective. Jim, my boy, I've got your matter arranged all right. You are to get away to-morrow with a fortnight's leave. That should pull you round."

"It's awfully good of you, sir. It's just what I'm needing."

"Talking of hanging commissaries," said the Colonel, with a whimsical smile on his dark face, "it was all I could do to keep my hands off one of your pig-heads down at Balaclava yonder." And he switched his long mud-caked riding-boot with his whip as if it were the gentleman in question.

"I called on Lord Raglan to ask his permission to my plan, and at first he was a bit stiff and stand-offish. But he came round and spoke very nicely of you, my boy. He wouldn't discuss that foolish charge of yours, and I did not press It. He granted you leave at once, and gave me a written order for your passage to and from Constantinople by first ship that was leaving."

"But that's only the beginning of the story," he said, as Jim's mouth opened with thanks again. "I thought I'd make sure of the whole business, so I waded down to Balaclava. _Mon Dieu!_ what a travesty of a road! My poor beast was up to his knees in the filth at times. And the place itself when I got there! The harbour is a cesspool, an inferno of evil smells and pestilence, And I think the evil vapours have got into the heads of your people there, I never saw such disorder and confusion in all my life. I found the harbour master at last, and asked him for information as to sailings. But he was only the Inner Harbour Master, it seems, and he referred me to the Head of the Transport. The transport people referred me to the Naval Authorities, and a naval officer, whom I caught on the wing, told me I would have to apply to the Outer Harbour Master, who was somewhere outside among the fleet. I was consigning them all to warmer quarters than Balaclava, when I spied a man I knew--Captain Jolly of the _Carnbrea_, who had brought some of our troops over to Kamiesch Bay. He was bursting with complaints and nearly mad, said he'd like to tie the heads of all the departments in one big bag and sink them in the cesspool. He said he was sailing to-morrow with a load of sick and wounded, and he'd been up trying to get a few stoves from the official who had charge of them, as the sick men were dying of the cold. 'He'd got hundreds of them lying there,' said old Jolly, almost black in the face, 'and he wouldn't let me have one. Said I must get a requisition and fill it up and get it signed at Head-quarters. I told him the men were dying meanwhile. He could do nothing without a requisition signed at Head-quarters. I asked him to lend me some stoves. He couldn't. I asked him to sell me some. He wouldn't. I told him those men's deaths would lie at his door. He said if I would get a requisition, etc., etc. So then I--well, I told him what I thought of him and all the rest, in good hot sailor-talk, and came away.'"

"I asked him if he could find room for one more on his ship, and told him about you, and, like a good fellow, he said, 'Send 'em both along and I'll make room for 'em.' So you're all right, Jim, and Jolly will make you comfortable, I know."

"It's awfully good of you, sir," said Jim once more. "I'm sorry we're such a bother to you."

"It's not every man can boast of two such young warriors, you see. On the whole I'm inclined to think Providence served us well in making me an ally, eh?"

"Your people are very much better off than ours, sir," said Jack. "Our camp is like London on a foggy day."

"And ours is like Paris," laughed the Colonel. "You see we understand the art of war better than you do, and, candidly, I think your officers are much to blame for the little interest they take in their men. Here we are all _bons camarades_, whereas your men are left entirely to themselves."

"We mix in the trenches," said Jack in defence.

"Of necessity, I suppose, since the space is limited. But even there you don't mix as we do."

"Your music alone is worth coming for," said Jim. "It did me as much good as the doctor almost."

"Yes; I notice a lot of your men come across to hear it whenever they get the chance. Great mistake shutting up your bands. The men always like music, and expect it."

"You don't think I'll miss anything by going, sir?" asked Jim anxiously.

"You'll gain a great deal more than you'll miss, my boy. I shouldn't wonder if we have a fairly quiet time here now."

"And you'll see to my horse?"

"He shall have every attention, I promise you."