"You'll have to watch those Bakót chaps," he murmured, "there's no fight in 'em." And again with more difficulty. "Those beggars 'll cut you off at the Sorágh Gul; get round by the Bewal road. You'll have to smash 'em there." His mind was evidently away with the retreating troops. His grip tightened2 on Terrington's hand. "If only I could go along with you, old man. Oh, it's hard to come to grief at the first hurdle3."
He shut his eyes with that inconsolable sigh, and it was his unconscious soul that whispered, "Give my love to Helen," with the last beats of his heart.
Terrington went on writing as Langford's head fell back, then he loosened the dead man's fingers from his hand, and left the room. The sheer pressure of thought seemed to have squeezed out of him the power of feeling.
In the women's durbar hall he found Walcot and Mrs. Chantry turning over the litter of the Residency rooms.
Terrington had left the porterage of the reserve ammunition4 to Walcot's arrangement, and had been expecting his report for half an hour. Walcot had, however, considered the packing of Mrs. Chantry's boxes of more importance.
The expression of Terrington's opinion on his preference was a good deal tempered by Mrs. Chantry's presence; but even so was caustic5 enough to burn itself into Walcot's memory.
As he left the hall without a word, Rose Chantry lifted an Afghan poshteen from the heap beside her.
"Did you send me this?" she asked.
It was lined with astrachan, and exquisitely6 embroidered7, and was the most valuable of Terrington's few possessions.
"Yes," he said, "it was the only warm thing I could get for you. You will want everything you can wear, and you can put that on over a good deal. There are some boots to come."
She did not know that he had sent her the thing of which he had most need himself, and his giving had about it no air of gallantry; but the proof that he had thought of her at a moment when he had to think of everything touched her far more than had Walcot's voluble commiseration8.
She held out her hand to him and tried to speak, but her throat closed and her lips trembled.
He took her hand in both of his.
"Poor, poor thing!" he said.
Gholam Muhammed entered with the long lamb-lined boots at that moment and laid them with a salaam9 in front of her.
They had been made for Terrington and were long enough to reach to a man's knee, and Rose, whose every breath at the moment compromised with a sob10, thrust out her pretty foot beside them with unconscious coquetry.
"Oh, that's all right," said Terrington, smiling; "they'll go over the others. You'll not find them a bit too big."
He lifted one, with its tassels11 and showy crimson12 calf13, and, taking her wrist as if she had been a child, thrust her hand down through the woolly lining14 which almost filled the top.
The loose sleeve slid back to her elbow against the leather edge, and as she looked into his face with a surprised compliance15, something in the softness of the curling silken warmth against her skin touched her suddenly beyond her power of control. She snatched her arm away from him, and, flinging herself upon the heap of curtains and cushions, burst into tears.
Terrington, completely at fault, made no attempt to console her. He knew when to leave a man unhindered and to give a horse its head, and the instinct helped him with a woman's tears. He stood watching her sobbing16 shoulders, and the shadows on her golden hair, but his thoughts, the instant they were freed from her, flew forward to the forcing of the Sorágh Gul, the double-headed defile17 on the road to Rashát, where he knew Mir Khan could intercept18 him and compel him to face an attack from three sides at once. He tried to compel his memory to yield some details of the position which he might turn to account, for his own field-sketches only supplied features which would be useful to the enemy.
The sinking of Rose Chantry's sobs19 brought his mind back to the dim hall. He put his hand gently on her shoulder.
"What was it, child?" he said.
She raised her head from the crimson silk, leaning towards him against his hand, and mopping her eyes with the ghost of a handkerchief.
The explanation explained nothing to Terrington—a woman never seemed so unreasonable21 to him as when she gave her reasons—but its incomprehensibility absolved22 him from attempted consolation23.
"Well," he smiled, "you mustn't cry again till you're across the border. Hukm hai!"
She looked up at him, leaning still against his hand.
"I'm afraid of your orders," she said shyly.
"Well, there's another," he went on with his paternal24 air; "you must wear everything warm you've got and pack only what you can put on later."
"I've nothing warm," she said with half a sob.
"Oh, come!" he rallied her; "then I'll have to send round the men who are padding your doolie to pad you too! How about that shooting suit of yours?"
His remembrance of it pleased her far more than her possession.
"It's not very warm," she murmured.
"Well, it's a good deal warmer than these flimsy things," he said, lifting the laces that lay round her neck; "and we'll turn a feather quilt into a petticoat for you, cut you a boa out of the mess-room bearskin, and put the poshteen on top of all. Mind, you'll have to parade in full marching order, or we'll leave you behind for Mir Khan to take care of."
An orderly entering with a chit at that moment made an end to the boyish talk that was meant to put fresh heart into her, and Terrington, after a glance at the scrap25 of paper, left her at once with a smile and a nod and an instant's tightening26 of his fingers upon her shoulder.
At sunset he read the sentences of the burial service over the trench27 beside the Residency in which the bodies of the three Englishmen were laid. The dusk was spreading under the autumn twilight28, while the pale spaces of eternal snow beyond Rashát were veiled with rose in the clear heaven above the purple ramparts of the valley and the flames of the pyres on which the dead Hindus were burned blazed in clear spires29 of light through the increasing gloom.
Rose Chantry stood next to Terrington, in a shooting costume of golden-brown tweed, with a leather hunting-belt, a broad band of leather about the short skirt, brown leather boots that laced half way to the knee, and a brown tam-o'-shanter pinned tight upon her curls. She hardly knew what he was reading as she looked across the miles of evening to the tinted30 snows, and heard the crackle of the funeral fires on either side of her. Life had been suddenly changed altogether into something hard and glaring and stale and ugly like a ball-room opened to the dawn, and she felt to be growing hard and plain and matter of fact to match it.
The melancholy31 volleys were fired above the grave, the level flash of orange light splitting the darkness like the sweep of a sword, for Terrington, well aware that he was watched, would omit nothing which might by its absence suggest a desire for concealment32. While the ostentation33 of the funeral was distracting the attention of Mir Khan's spies, all the outward openings in the walls were being closed, so that when the funeral party returned to the Fort the arrangements for immediate34 departure could be pushed forward with continued speed and in complete concealment. The twinkle of lanterns everywhere made the labyrinth35 of the old mud walls look as if invaded by a flight of fire-flies. In ordered lines across the courtyard the bearers squatted36, brown and impassive, beside their burdens; line after line, hour after hour, filing forth37 from the dark doorways38 of the Fort, till half the space between its walls was full. The other half was covered with accoutrements and bristled39 with piled arms. In the stables the Lancers were removing every needless detail from their equipment, and a wisp of rag was twisted round any piece of metal from which a sound might be shaken. In the long gully between the stable and the Fort stood strings40 of mules41 with a few zabus, snorting and shuffling43 under the loads that were being heaped upon their backs.
An hour after midnight the gate of the courtyard was thrown open, and a dark stream of horsemen poured silently out and turned north-east towards the river. They had left their lances broken behind them, but took every ounce of food that they could carry and three hundred rounds a man. Hard on the dust of their hoofs44 followed the Sikhs and Bakót levies45 under Dore; the Sikhs, long and lithe46, fine marchers and good fighters all of them; the Bakót men short and square, very doubtful shooters and untried in fight, but hard hill-men, at home in the snow, and equal to almost any labour. After them came the long lines of mules out of the gully snorting and shaking their packs and harness, and kicking up more dust than the horsemen. Rose Chantry's doolie followed in rear of these. It had been padded for her with quilts of Armak wool and lined with camel's hair curtains fastened down to keep out the wind, and carried a mattress47 of feathers, a span in depth, to save her from the joltings of the road. Terrington had literally48 sketched49 its construction with one hand while he wrote a despatch50 with the other, and had himself gone down to the yard to explain away the carpenter's difficulties. But he shook his head at the boxes in which Rose had packed what she considered "absolutely necessary."
"No good!" he said. "Even if we got them to the Palári, we'd have to leave them in the snow."
"How many bearers have I?" Rose demanded.
He looked down at her smiling.
"Four for the doolie and a mule42 for your baggage," he said; "about what's allowed for half a company. And there's a tent for you on the mule already."
"I can have some one else's tent," she exclaimed crossly.
"No one else has a tent," he said with the same dry smile.
She turned from him petulantly51.
"You can leave them all behind if you like; I don't care!"
Yet she repacked submissively—with the help of the khansamah, whom Terrington sent to the assistance of her pride—what she most needed in the space allowed her; with a new dull kindling52 of anger against the man who could compel her so easily to obey. But the eager preparations in the darkness subdued53 her with the sense of an impending54 fate, the silent streaming forth of the little force into the night towards the day of battle and the awful snows, and she was gratefully reassured55 when Terrington suddenly appeared beside her as the doolie drew up, and helped her in with a comforting pressure of the hand.
His own beloved Guides brought up the rear, and he rode last with them out of the Fort.
For the next day and night danger only could threaten from direct pursuit, and so his place was for the present with the rear-guard.
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1
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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2
tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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hurdle
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| n.跳栏，栏架；障碍，困难；vi.进行跨栏赛 | |
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ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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5
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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exquisitely
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| adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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commiseration
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| n.怜悯，同情 | |
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salaam
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| n.额手之礼，问安，敬礼；v.行额手礼 | |
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10
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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11
tassels
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| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
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12
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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13
calf
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| n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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16
sobbing
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| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
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defile
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| v.弄污，弄脏；n.(山间)小道 | |
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18
intercept
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| vt.拦截，截住，截击 | |
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19
sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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20
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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21
unreasonable
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| adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的 | |
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22
absolved
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的过去式和过去分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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scrap
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| n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废 | |
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tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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28
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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29
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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30
tinted
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| adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
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31
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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32
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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33
ostentation
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| n.夸耀，卖弄 | |
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34
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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36
squatted
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| v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的过去式和过去分词 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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37
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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38
doorways
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| n.门口，门道( doorway的名词复数 ) | |
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39
bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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40
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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41
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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42
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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43
shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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44
hoofs
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| n.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.（兽的）蹄，马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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45
levies
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| （部队）征兵( levy的名词复数 )； 募捐； 被征募的军队 | |
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46
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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47
mattress
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| n.床垫，床褥 | |
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48
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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49
sketched
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| v.草拟（sketch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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50
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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51
petulantly
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52
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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53
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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54
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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55
reassured
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| adj.使消除疑虑的；使放心的v.再保证，恢复信心( reassure的过去式和过去分词) | |
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56
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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