THE WHITE FLAG.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 83, 7 April 1900, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE WHITE FLAG.

"If you ask me," said Mellishe, "I say it isn't justifiable under any circumstances. If a man gets in a hole let him cut a way out, or finish there with his men. It ought to be unknowp in the army, and there should be notning white about a man on service but his teeth."

One Gallwey, major, and grey as a dog badger, looked at him from under his eyebrows. Junior subalterns are not expected to air their views over much before their seniors, and Mellishe had spoken hotly. The most talk ran upon the white flag, which is neither a frequent nor a cheerful subject, but which sometimes crops up late at night. And Mellishe, of the Rutlands, said aloud what was at the bottom of each man's heart—that no British fighting line, having fallen on evil times, should display the white flag. "I think you forget," said Gallwey, "that your men are given you to do the best you can with. Their lives are in your charge, and if there is nothino- to be gained for the good of your side you won't be held blameless if you throw them away to no purpose. . "A.ll the same," he continued under his breath, "I'd like to go to^my God before it ever happens to me." "You fellows talk as if it were a common amusement to hoist the white flag," growled Tipping, captain. "It isn't a prevailing vice of the British army, and it's always the result of a blunder, and nobody here is likely to see it."

"The fact .is," put in the sage major, "there is nearly always some way out of a tight place if you look for it. I move we change the subject and turn in. I suppose you know. there will most likely be a big sortie tomorrow?"

In the main Dutch laager that nighi there reig-ned a great peace, broken only in the neighbourhood of tho hospital tent, whence sounded at 'times the babble, of those unrestful ones who lay in the toils of straining, hot-eyed delirium, or when an occasional nerve-breaking whoop spoke of the demon Pain that was busy within. For Dutch surgery is not of the most skilled.

Within a tent near the confines sat a certain Croubert—a cunningl and circumspect person -"who commanded the horde of savage farmers. His mind, which was devious and manysided, ran upon espionage at this moment, and profoundly he cast about for some means of warfare which are unusual, but which might pay. Opposite him sat another Boei\ likewise a leader of men, and .of presumed superiority to the rabble. He went by the name of Polder, and to him, after meditation, spoke Croubert in the throaty tongue of his race.

"There will be a sortie to-morrow," he said with the air of one who is not to be gainsaid, " from the English camp. It will have to end in our favour this time or there isn't the snap of a chance left for us."

Polder grunted and spat by way of assent. It is largely his charming manners that make the Boer so pleasant a companion, and Polder resembled his kin.

"The bulk of the Eng-landers are likely to gather towards the left of the kopje," pursued' Croubert, "twothirds of them. The other third must be exit off at any cost. There's no way out. I want the two-thirds all to myself."

"No accounting for tastes," muttered Polder. He had seen much straight shootingfromLadekingoflate and had beheld the swift, cold death of very many of his comrades. Moreover, o graze on the neck from a British bullet had helped him to the conclusion that he was much better off on his farm.

Croubert s-miled a greasy smile. He had more the air of a scullion than a commander of troops.

"I want a young man who is not afraid and who would run his neck into a trap for the chance of money," he said. "He must be slimmer than the slimmest, with his wits on edge."

"You are looking for a prodigy," replied Polder, "but I'll bring you the best I can get."

"If you aski me," said Mellishe, "I

He departed rubbing1 his hands and presently returned with a youthful Boer of about twenty-four, of heavy build, crafty as regards the eyes, and of thick-lipped and rather sullen countenance. "Slim," by the way, is Boer for cunning, and does not refer to one's figure Croubert looked him up and down and took from the corner of the tent a white cloth about two feet square.

"Know what this is?" queried Croubert. "Yes," said the man, tentatively.

"It's the sign of surrender," pursued Crotibert. "If the enemy hoists it, can he still be fired upon?" n "Yes. if you've any cartridges, grinned the young Boer. "Good boy," remarked Croubert; "never let details stand in the way of success. Enemies are made to be shot, never mind how. Now, here s a khaki jacket from, the back of a dead soldier man, put it on—so. This is a British rifle and bayonet. Catch hold. Button the flag inside your coat. "Now, to-morrow at about noon the En "landers will come out, and you mult be out of sight by the left kopje. It will fall to you to join the Bntisa ranks quietly-you look enough of an En "'lander for that-and if at the top of "the,fight .you can ; hit ith^r&hi moment'to hoist that ragvoji tl^end of the bayonet there will be £100 waiting for you here on your return Remember, it will be no use unless the senior officers are down and you w H have to work those wits of jours to full stretch. Choose the right time and you'll save your countiy and make your fortune. Out with yon.' The nian-Dintel was his ■ nameturned Z his heel, being little given to talking, and departed. "4 hundred pounds," he remarked to the empty gloom around; _ that s enough to start me and my girl. This afforded more food for reflection. Being a Boer he placed himself first. Even Boers are apt to-be affianced, it seems, so widespread is the custom, and so productive of various results. That one girl might cause the fall of a British regiment* probably new, yet but for the gW Dintel would have refused His task was to pull the sleeve of Death, with le chance that it might not notice, and though a Boer can fight on occasion he has little liking tor three to one: chances. Dintel arose and went to his quarters

Across the valley : hatched - and matured the plan*-for s sortie. An inkling of it .crept through Ladeffeat large, and them was reioiciiie. In the weariness of a .irmtless siege sorties are desirable interludes? without which, the proceedings would melt into boredom, unspeakable. The day broke damp and raw, ana the hills stood out in the pitiless grey landscape with a steely hardness that depressed. As hour passed hou, Se of Ladeking became busier and busier, but certain privates of the Rutland* between whiles found tame .to consider things. "Me an' my bay'nat," said No.■ .682,. "is goin' on an openin'-up expedition. "We've 'ad enough telephonm at eicht 'undred yards, and my bay nit she's goin' to stir up the insides of some o' them blessed Dutchies. "Oo',s made you CO. since last nio-ht?" drawled another cynically. "You'll go where you're shoved, and you'll do what they tell yer. Baynit! You won't get no hay-makm . Dutchies, they don't fight no closer than 400." ' "I'm in Mellishe's 'alf company, quoth No. 682, "an' if there's a chance I b'lieve 'ell get us some close work if 'c's broke for it." At eleven o'clock things began to happen at Ladeking. ■The lower half opened out like a lily, and a brown river of men, compact, firm, but. supple as a salmon rod, swung forward and to the right. Erom the higher part a second cataract of khaki poured out, and a third after. The columns diverged fan-wise, as to toe touch of a magnet, and the right-half forced ahead for the vantage-point ot bush that crowned the first hill. The Boer lines up the slope began to splash, and sputter with rifle fire, after the manner of a wet cracker, and here and there a man in the advancing line sank down with odd little «!Bture.s that looked without sense when, W* *rdnr -a " distance; \nd the leaden bees,, began to hum overhead, and to sing a song of put. put! put!" on the dry veldt, raising little scars of turf and spouts of thirsty soil. As the column reached the rise it threw in a volley-a good, even volley, with the frontier throb in it Then tho brown thing that moved so compactly surged forward asrain and a shoulder of hillside blotted it out. The centre column rounded towards the same position, closing in on the flank, but with main body swung wide for the kopje. With the column went the smell of leather and brown dust, the sound- ot straining belts and tapping side-arms, while over all swept the long accompaniment of the shrill bullets that piped overhead and drummed on the sick leiarth. Presently one,; nearly spent, took a colour-sergeant squarely in the'chest witih the sound of a stick striking a wet cloth, and the coloursergeant sat down, his .eyes receding and the veins on,his forehead' standing1 out' like red worsted. A bullet, inclining downwards, flicked, a groove through No. 6S2's 'helmet and slew hia rear-rank man.

■ "Never touched me," quoth 682; ''as long as I don't get sunstroke through the 'ole iiv'my 'at I'm still there."

M«llishe, dusty but elate, shepherded his own half-company along, with hungry eyes on the spouting lines above. At" last they made a nicely-covered position*, at the head of tihe rise; and when they had arranged themselves according to the rules of the game, they proceeded with their programme, which was to crumple the Boer lines with rifle-fire, and then carry the position at, the point Of the bayonet.

!Nbw, how did it happen that the middle column had its hands filled by a triple force of oßei-s just at the time when it was needed to cover our main body's flank? It is a rebus which needs puzzling out in a smoking- room afterwards, with all data to hand. On the field itself, to an accompaniment of hot musketry fire on the weak side, it looked uncommonly like ah awkward mess. The Boers, instead of crumpling, filled out, and filled out with men from Heaven knows where, and—where was the relief? .

Captain Tipping, on realising- matters, placed 'his company to the best advantage; and Gallwey, commanding-, drew his lips in and made ready tq prove his men to the utmost. Mellishe v surprised, but lacking- the anxiety of his seniors, took in matters as an "addition to a limited .expjer_iejic_e v

The ringl of Boer fixe-closed in, rifte speaking" to rifle across the lead-torn arena, and in the" rear the Dutchmen flocked thick. Man after man.dropped on his face and lay kicking- in the,dust like an impaled- beetle. Long- and long- did _the grisly,. slaughter last. Presently a Dutch bullet drilled Gallwey's shoulder, so that he swooned with pain; and presently revived, propped against a boulder, to look dimly out over a smoking- inferno of noise and blood. Feebler grew.. the British fire as the Boers closed in, "for

the g-ood reason tliat whole men grew, scarcer every minute; but Mellishe, flushing hot with rage, did his best. ~ Oue bullet, glancing- from a rock, slit Tipping's arm from" shoulder ttti * elbow, .and., a second later, he. dropped •with another in the left knee. In and in drew the Boer lines, and the gapn were filled readily from infinite re* sources. And there in the middle next to 'So, 682, kneeled a large man of fleshy fea-. tures, with his legs coiled under him strangely, as though 'he were ashamed of them. His face was white, save for a few purple streaks, and his khaki jacket was split at the elbow. He; fired wild and Mg Jh, for he was the Boer envoy Dintel, who thus far had: i fulfilled his chiefs orders, and had no desire to . slay his ofifr kin. .The. wiatchful '}|ellishe, ' som? dastance off, • Noticed iisTapid and useless fire. " Sio-ht lower, man!" he shouted, "What d'ye mean by skying likq that?" . ' " . "Who on earth's that man?" U muttered to himself as {Dintel, understanding that he was being chidden, ducked lower still./."Shaking^with funk, too. Must take;oaxfe. he'doesn't) get talking to his ne^t; ■■man." ', And now the stinging; whitfe ring drew closer, and its line' .became aa unbroken frilling of thin.' smoke. Screaming lead whipped the little force to pieces, and■ -through shredded haze gleamed the, pain-jwrung,' hardhaze gleamed the pain-wrung,', hard* set faces of the British riflemen:. Mellishe, sole in command, nerved 'himself ■ to try a hopeless charge in.face.of the storm of lead, when out of. iihe fUmj; ■mist a. Thing- arose, shaiking. and wavering at first, then ''standing1 firm'knd insolent in its own dishonour. It was a white cloth knotted" to the barrel of a rifle, not twenty feetirbin, ifellishe.

From the ring : ofvswe&ting,, hardbitten fighters rose; a "buzz of wrath, and men, growling' incoherent oaths, began to fire the more stubbornly and viciously at the enemy. Mellishe choked as he looked at the rag.: Had Gallwey done this thing—considering ' now his careful speech of last night? But Gallwey lay senseless among the^ dusty rocks. Or Tipping, nodding ,' with closed eyes in the centre of the" ring—was it'he? . ..'.. . . .. The blue-white face of Dintel wobf bled foolishly as he held the shame-, ful thing aloft, and as Mellishe's eyes... fell on it again the. hot tears ran down.; the body's face—he had the complexion ■ of a gfrl of twenty. Then the welling^ eyes drooped to Dintel's thick woollentrousers —and Mellishe awoke. , He.; looked the man over and gave tongue. Many of the men, trained to obey without question, had ceased firing ou sight, of the flag-J-and^he. Boers-had : ceased too. Was this the end? , ■«

"Whose orders?" said.. Mellishe, hoarsely; it was all he -could find voice to say. '.. , i

Dintel turned full face to tho boy, ■ and Mellishe saw and guessed the truth. He whitened, flushed, and the .« heavy service revolver >in ihis hand came up level with. Dintel?s chest and l spoke three times. The white shame dropped, Dintel clapped a hand to each side and fell with a thick, sick ■ cough, calling .aloud on the name of; his betrothed. ... ■ • T . -Jvs

Mellish^^jtilp^Jie^ygs ringing, like a jarred piano, . turned vvjitih a,yell to hia m£n. ■ - . .-■ ~..£ . -• . v: ■ ■ -:... "Come on, you thieves! " he bark* ed, " close in, fix /ftayonets! Follow your nose, and. — ir^i\:"jJi;;, 1 will not setrdown' rthe whole "of Mellishe's order, because such things do not look well in print. But it met the case exactly,' a&d though none of the above is to be found in any drillbook, it passed..; ~'. -. •■•;

After one hoai'se, diisty cheer, the remnant, straining- and fer^aldng with its own weightythu'rled itself forward. Forward, to perform an impossibility, to charge in the fice of triple volleyiiring. But .thaMmpossibilities that ■^hd Britisih Army;'li|.s jpulled off wouli fill a volume, aTi'a;tlio\igh. men dropped ..like cattle and. the shrilling bullets seemed to fill the/space between them1 and their qiiarry,; Mellishe's men went ahead like a goaded bull. With them, forward and to the right, w&nt Mellish, his nostrils cracking -Jmjjfr, ..the lust for haoid-to-hand grappling*,, and to feel his. enemy's throat. Tli'is,:is a frequent yearning after much fighting from a distance^

As they came, upon the uncouth, ragged lines that 'had wrought so much quick death upon, their fellows, the men hatched their bayonets tightly to hand —and the foremost Boers began to melt. Eight: to one though they were, they could not withstand that bolt-like rush'and the sfcortwhicker; of cold steel.' '.They 'saw a line of set,; savage faces, sick of punishment, , advancing swiftly, and'they fled. Full' toll the English paid themselves then," ami man upon man .felt tiie cold, dry.... bite of the bayonet tvs our little coijs,,. dug its. way through. 'On the otjieP^ Bide they foregathered, weary, ami. j spent, and from thejines of Ladekingf; burst a dropping "fire of shells'which- , tore the rallying Dutchmen beyond,;.s<i that they fell nit ways and scattered hopelessly; Back went 'Mellishe; in 4 his panting corps to Ladeking, am* ) the Bed Cross stretchers began t^; creep abroad. They had. no lacjk'pf work that night.' ' "' ■ "'. '.

And next day, .when things had been; ~■ mopped down a little and tidied, No. 652 raised his voice concerningl one in ! woollen trousers, who had hoisted a white flasr. ■ ~ ~., .

"'E called for somebody .when t& went down," said No^M;.••'"!inp.s' like* ly a girl. But r'e,;ug i -an*-jgi^,> 'im full dose, an' that's-thVi^fefd like to follow frora 'AcTkney ■;'twio^ round the earth and back agin." "' •. • ' But Dintel, who was /not j6:K<4ss?:. separated,. sleeps with sixty British." dead hard by Reslaers.—S. D. GowifiEt in "Illustrated Mail.'.', - '